At the Mansion of Madness

Orgasmo (1969)

2012-02-19T02:30:00.003-08:00

Those who may only know him from his terribly cheesy ‘80s outings like NIGHTMARE CITY and GHOSTHOUSE, or his violent cannibal jungle adventures, should know that director Umberto Lenzi also directed a number of crime, Eurospy, and giallo films that are considered to be very respectable and accomplished. What I like best are his giallo films from the late ‘60s and early ’70s, and so, if you thought the cannibal movies were too distasteful, or that NIGHTMARE CITY was ultra-sucky (not me), and crime films just aren’t your thing, then perhaps what you may’ve been missing all along are some of his terrific gialli, like SEVEN BLOOD STAINED ORCHIDS, KNIFE OF ICE, SPASMO or one I recently enjoyed for the first time, ORGASMO, which sadly, unlike SPASMO, doesn’t include paranoid cries of the enigmatic movie title in its trailer. It was actually released as PARANOIA in America, which adds a good deal of confusion, because following the success of the film in America, Lenzi made another movie called PARANOIA in Italy that was released as A QUIET PLACE TO KILL in the US, resulting in two movies called PARANOIA made roughly around the same time. Adding further confusion is the fact that both films star the flamboyant sex icon Carroll Baker as the leading actress. Ah, title confusion… What better way to nerd out on films?

Recently widowed and wealthy Kathryn West (Carroll Baker) has moved from America to a lonely villa in Italy. Detached from her past and looking to live a quiet life of peace and isolation, her only form of contact and company now is her lawyer, a stern housemaid, and a deaf gardener. Kathryn finds herself attracted to a young stranger whose motor happens to breakdown in front of her house one day, and is seduced and charmed into letting the young man and his sister stay with her. Once she is hooked in, both brother and sister, and surely some other outside influence, mess with her sanity in cruel and evil ways that drive her mad.

So, she was alright as a witch in BABA YAGA, a distressed dame in SO SWEET… SO PERVERSE, and displayed fairly interesting acting in KNIFE OF ICE without delivering any lines on account of playing a mute character, but for a while now I’ve usually wondered: what’s so great about Carroll Baker? Well, read on to find out.

"Well, what do I think of myself? When I think of myself, I want to vomit." --Kathryn/ Carroll Baker

After seeing ORGASMO, I’ve finally become a Carroll Baker fan. She doesn’t necessarily come off as a great actor when delivering casual lines of dialogue, but when she goes mad in ORGASMO, Baker lets loose at times and gives it her all and the result is attention grabbing, to say the least. She’s also a pretty good screamer and I can’t help wondering if Lenzi brought it out of her. The conviction in her portrayal of Kathryn’s misery sort of rubbed off on me, as her suffering was very believable and incited a considerable amount of pity and concern. With the help of greenish white makeup and dark lipstick, it starts to really seem like she’s not doing so well after all the mental abuse she endures, which also succeeds in amplifying our emotional disgust in her tormentors.

The acoustic guitar and serenading female voice in the movie’s main theme song, FATE HAD PLANNED IT SO, is very pretty, but also haunting in a way and reminded me of the theme music to THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE. The vocals in the music yield a feminine presence that gives soul to Baker’s character, but with an air of unease, as if something isn’t quite right with the way things are initially unfolding.

Things begin to change for Kathryn when a dreamy James Dean type (just kidding, but he does have a poster in his room), Peter (Lou Castel), happens to breakdown in front of her villa. He’s invasive in a very suspicious way, showing up out of nowhere in need of help and showing up again in the middle of the night, but Kathryn is obviously attracted and can’t seem to resist his allure.

Kathryn’s past marriage has resulted in a particular folly in her decision making skills. While conversing with Peter over wine in the courtyard of her beautiful villa and reflecting on her deceased husband, Kathryn claims that an older man was what she thought she needed, but apparently the only thing he could offer was money. After spending most of her life with her husband and having all of her financial needs well met, there still seemed to be a void in the place of a more youthful lifestyle that’s eluded her over time. The arrival of a much younger man must feel like a refreshing new change; something she surely must have fantasized about for a long time while being constrained in her marriage. And so, it ends up being no surprise when she sexually gives in to Peter.

Shortly after Kathryn develops an attachment to Peter, his sister, Eva (Colette Descombes), arrives late to the party to visit. Eva is the other side of the same coin as Peter, with Peter providing the sexual allusion of youth and Eva bringing the cultural element of youth, like photography, music, and rock ‘n’ roll dancing, resulting in Kathryn remembering what it’s like to party again. It’s not long before she feels very comfortable around these strangers, as if they are her new family.

With an almost surreal display of extortion, Kathryn’s home invasion isn’t necessarily brought on by physical force, but more through a domination of willpower and trickery; some of which involves drugs. The film eventually results in an unsettling and claustrophobic feel as Kathryn finds herself prisoner in her own home. By weakening her willpower, Kathryn has difficulty in making it known to others that she needs help, with guests mistakenly thinking her captors are just a couple of good friends. Her misery increases her dependence on the drugs and alcohol Peter and Eva provide her, which in turn only makes her weaker, paler, and more demented. Doesn’t sound pleasant at all, I know, but the film is just so odd, twisted, and well-made that I can’t help but recommend it.

It’s uncomfortable to describe the film as erotic, because the situation is more disturbing than sexy, which is probably why the erotic sounding Italian title of ORGASMO was changed to PARANOIA for the American market. Also, the psychedelic cinematography in the scenes that indicate the effects of the drugs on Kathryn give the movie that delirious giallo feel that, like a drug, helps to keep me addicted and always coming back for more.

A small red herring that I find humorous is when after the house maid (Lilla Brignone) is introduced to Kathryn as Teresa, the maid politely makes it known that she would like to be called Terry, on account of her knowing a little English and staying in London for a short time. The initial response was sort of like “Oh… OK, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind, TERESA!”. For the rest of the movie she’s not once given the honor of being referred to as Terry. This is a very small point in the whole scheme of things and is easily unnoticeable, but it was something that I thought to be peculiar and rather indicative of the snobby nature of Kathryn and her lawyer, Brion, played by Tino Carrar; who some may remember as the Professor Terzi character with the cute daughter in Argento’s THE CAT OF NINE TAILS.

So, a lot of you know that I usually save this spot to rave about the movie’s great ending, but unfortunately there isn’t anything too surprising about it. It’s a pessimistic and very grim conclusion with a montage that is an odd recapping of several key highlights, which I suppose is useful in case you don’t get around to watching it again. It’s still a great movie with a very different home invasion scenario than most are probably accustomed to, unless it’s ripping off some other movie I don’t know about. It was supposedly influenced by WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but until I see that I won’t know for sure. The IMDB synopsis seems similar, in a way.

ORGASMO is a new favorite of mine and I am looking forward to exploring more of Baker’s filmography. I haven’t even seen THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH yet, her first giallo and supposedly one of the best.

The high quality screen images were used with the kind permission of B-Movie Zone and Italian Film Review, be sure to check them out.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)

2012-02-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

Even with the gory movie poster and the seductively macabre title, movie theaters thought this film could use a little extra hype during its premiere, by serving red popcorn; otherwise known as bloodcorn. Moviegoers were then probably expecting a gratuitously bloody show of a female zombie getting vengeance with some of the craziest and most terrifying scenes of which the world had never seen before on the big screen. What they got instead was a slow burning mystery and a lot of time spent with a mentally ill mind. Oh how they must’ve been disappointed….

Similar to Emilio Miraglia’s own THE RED QUEEN KILLS 7 TIMES, THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE establishes itself as a giallo just as much as it does a modern Gothic horror piece. It contains all of the conventional trappings of Gothic horror, such as the creepy mansion, supernatural themes, a séance, and a promise that something will rise from the grave; a promise that the movie admirably keeps. But, it also has a fair share of that addictive ‘70s modern look; with the European nightclubs, swinging parties, sexy divas, and a brutal faceless killer, giving it an undeniable giallo feel. Fans of both genres that haven’t checked this out yet, really should, and anyone that has already seen it, should take the coming analysis as an attempt to make you want to watch this again.

Experiencing grief for the loss of his deceased wife, Evelyn, formerly institutionalized nobleman, Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen), finds solace by frequenting the London night scene, in search of something or someone new. However, there is an added facet to his inner-torment, and that is the reoccurring and haunting memories of when his once precious Evelyn was disloyal to him.

The flashbacks in Alan’s mind are a visual highlight in the film, consisting of a dreamy daytime setting with light fog and that soul melting music from composer Bruno Nicolai, as Evelyn runs through a grassy field in slow motion; simultaneously disrobing before embracing her lover in the nude, in Alan’s own lovely garden. The scene is so beautiful that it is hard to believe it is Alan’s tormenting memory of his late cheating wife, but I like to think of it as a sort of symbolic suggestion of how something as beautiful as love can even symbolize pain.

Evelyn was a redhead and this has resulted in a complex for Alan, for he has a fixation with redheads, which to some could be seen as an inability to let go, but Alan is the vindictive type who is not looking for comfort by sleeping with other women who remind him of his wife, but, with a sense of vengeance and perversion, he finds satisfaction in bringing the women he meets back to his place and sadistically subjecting them to torture before murdering them as a way of punishing his ex-wife. Like a bad night life addiction, things are better for him in the morning, but not before long he gets that itch again to find another victim to salve his craving.

Looking for a real good fix, Alan is told by his cousin, George, Enzo Tarascio, about a real stunner of a redhead who’s performing at the Crazy Cat nightclub that night, and Alan wastes no time in checking this dancer out. The dancer is Susan, played by Erika Blanc, and she is introduced into the story with a Gothic striptease; sexily emerging from a coffin and boogying down to a live band while slowly blowing out candles and removing articles of clothing before the scene goes dark. Blanc is amazing here and really does showcase some great moves, and anyone with a fixation for fiery redheads that are more than capable of satisfying one’s inner perversion, has just hit pay dirt.

So it’s not surprising that Alan later lets loose his inner demon after the high profile dancer/call-girl comes home with him to his isolated Gothic mansion deep in the woods. Susan does manage to flee from the mansion before ending up in a cemetery. Alan catches up to her, and in the throes of one of his Evelyn flashbacks, passes out, and Susan escapes. Analogous to someone waking up on the floor one morning after a night of too much drinking and drugs, Alan wakes up in his family cemetery after a night of too much sadism and red headed booty. Taking advice from his doctor, Richard, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Alan decides to marry again.

The narrative develops into more of a mystery style after Alan immediately marries a woman he met and went home with after a nocturnal gypsy-themed outdoor party, Gladys, Marina Malfatti, who doesn’t know how lucky she is to be blonde. The unease of wondering just how long the marriage will keep Alan’s madness at bay keeps things interesting, and so does the presence of new characters in the mansion, these being a couple of Alan’s relatives and a humorous line-up of all blonde maids; a dark joke considering what we know about Alan. All of the characters are suspicious in their own ways and it’s not long before it is discovered that Evelyn’s corpse is missing from the cemetery and certain characters start getting violently murdered. Given that this movie was from 1971, the murder scenes are surprisingly violent and cruel, one of which includes the use of real intestines, which is something that I didn’t think became common place until after DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978).

The mystery develops further before the film delivers its climatic moment that most will be anticipating, based on the movies TALES FROM THE CRYPT style title. This is one of those movies where things continue to be twisty even when it seems that all maybe said and done, resulting in an ending that I found quite satisfying.

"What do you offer, to drink with me?"--Susan/ Erika Blanc

Other Interesting Movie Posters Similar to EVELYN's:

All the Colors of the Dark (1972)

2012-01-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

In this delirious piece by director Sergio Martino, viewers are granted the pleasure to spend, literally, the entire movie with actress Edwige Fenech, as Jane.

Childhood trauma and a miscarriage, as a result of a car accident one year ago, has resulted in Jane’s mental instability. She lately seems to be spending a lot of time at home now, smoking and drinking while waiting around for her lover, Richard, George Hilton, who’s out working most of the time. Our introduction to Jane in the movie sees her waking up from a bewitchingly filmed nightmare, full of symbolic hints to her troubles, and in a daze, she walks into the shower while still in her nightgown.

Is this a symbolic and desperate attempt for Jane to wash away what is grieving her, or just a chance for Fenech to get wet? I’d say definitely both, which is part of what makes ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK so pleasurable. It is not just an empty ploy for mindless sex and violence, you see, but the film is just as sexy as it is intelligent, head spinning, macabre, and psychedelic.

Fenech is sort of the main attraction, whose pleasing looks, vulnerability, and pleasant company carries the proceedings rather well, but the movie is also packed with notable Euro-genre actors who contribute to the show, also, such as the frequent Fenech co-stars, George Hilton and Ivan Rassimov, and giallo divas, Marinna Malfatti and Nieves Navarro, the latter being a fantastic and groundbreaking lead herself in DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT.

"I'm almost certain that someone is after me, someone from my past, from something that happened in my childhood. Do you believe in this sort of thing?"--Jane/Edwige Fenech

Taking advice from her sister, Barbara, played by Navarro, Jane sees a psychoanalyst, George Rigaud, about her nightmares and paranoia of being pursued.

Jane’s paranoia is exemplified by an added tension that is prevalent whenever she happens to be alone, which usually follows with an immediate but temporary sense of relief when she is around others. For instance, when Jane leaves her psychoanalyst, she is alone in a subway station while a menacing “laa-laa” chime from Bruno Nicolai creates a disquieting atmosphere. After the subway pulls up, a feeling of comfort and safety prevails, as crowds of people invade the previously lonely and uncomfortable surrounding. It is not long before the tension rises again as she finds herself alone once more on the moving sub and, as dream seemingly becomes reality, the madman from her nightmares appears, Rassimov.

"Now you are one of us, Jane... It is impossible to denounce us"--Mark/Ivan Rassimov

A particular scene that has Jane being pursued sees her rushing to get in her car and, sure enough, the engine has trouble starting. This part would seem rather cliché if it weren’t for a particular finesse that Martino brings where certain brief moments and sounds are replayed several times, such as several repetitive loops of the sound of the failed engine start, or Jane’s scream as the killer readies to bear down on her with a knife, in trippy replay mode. Basically, like a lot of Italian directors, full of style.

While on a lovely walk in the park, Jane’s strange friend, Mary, Malfatti in a wicked looking red cloak, offers her advice and a cure for her problems by suggesting that she go to a Sabbath with her and meet her friends; as she says “you’ve only to trust them, and they will do the rest”. With intrigue and without thinking twice, she agrees to attend. Jane’s Sister, Barbara, claims that Jane has never been good at making decisions, which, given the naivety she has just demonstrated, has become most apparent.

"She was never good with decisions, but now she is yours and you don't give her the security she needs"--Barbara/Nieves Navarro

The best part of the film for me is the visits to the Sabbaths, which are brilliantly filmed and enhanced, big time, with an enchanting melodic music score from Bruno Nicolai. The actions of the cultist are horrific, but the stage is beautiful and things take a Gothic turn for the better. Julian Ugárte takes over and easily steals the movie for a couple minutes while acting with full focus and without restraint as the tall and convincingly evil cult leader; exposing bloody teeth and voraciously engaging in an orgy with Jane, as one would expect from a cult leader when such an opportunity presents itself.

Needless to say, the orgies at the Sabbath only temporarily relieve Jane of her problems and a whole new world of trouble opens up for her.

"Strange men have been following women since the stone-age"--Mary/Marina Malfatti

Jane’s psychoanalyst states that due to her emotional shock, it is difficult for her to know what’s real and what isn’t; which is something that can easily be said about the events in the movie, and is just another of the numerous charms to this gem of an atypical giallo thriller that constantly disorients the viewer, but ties things up rather nicely at the end.

I haven’t seen many of her sex comedies, but I can still say with confidence that this is one of Edwige Fenech’s best movies. Though her other gialli with Martino (THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH and YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY) as well as THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS are highly recommended as well.

"You are ours now, Jane, and you'll be protected. Don't worry about anybody"--J.P./Julian Ugarte

Messiah of Evil (1973)

2012-01-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

MESSIAH OF EVIL is an unusual and artistic low-budget American horror film with a fanciful script that results in a surreal and nightmarish sensibility that feels more like ‘70s Euro-horror, causing it to be both fondly remembered or easily forgotten, depending on the viewer’s taste. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz’s (the couple that brought us HOWARD THE DUCK and scripted AMERICAN GRAFFITI) ode to madness is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but with its odd nature and unique horror sequences, the easy to find, but still relatively unknown or unloved, MESSIAH OF EVIL just begs to be blogged about.

The start almost feels like some sort of one minute film project tacked on at the beginning. The scene of a man running from something unexplained and into a homicidal little girl with a razor blade seemed misleading and unnecessary, and ends up being completely forgotten later on since it really has no connection to anything. Things get more interesting quickly, after a short sub-credit sequence, with a shot of a blurry asylum hallway and a woman’s obscure figure walking towards us, slowly, as if she is sleep walking. A woman’s unstable voice, no-doubt crazy from what we are in for, openly narrates a coming threat, calmly at first and slowly builds up to a maddening crescendo. Whether she is talking to herself or narrating to the viewers is unclear, but much like the film, this part is open to interpretation and starts things off beautifully, unlike the tacky throat slashing that occurred before.

After that terrific intro, we move to Arletty, played by Marianna Hill, driving to the seaside town of Pointe Dune where her father resides. She is concerned about his recent silence and increasingly drastic letters. When she arrives, her father is missing and she is left to ponder the strange situation with journal entries and letters left behind by her father in his bizarre and necrotic house by the sea.

When Arletty first enters her father’s beach mansion, minds accustomed to more typical horror mansion clichés might expect spiders, dark corridors, dusty furniture, and cobwebs, but the look of the house on the inside is unlike anything one might’ve expected, especially given the fairly plain looking exterior, and really is indicative of the artistic and inventive nature of the film. The eerie figures painted on the walls that seem to be gazing at you in an unsettling and foreboding way and, not to mention, a swinging bed hung to the ceiling by chains, seems very appropriate for the residence of a modern and mad artist. The voiceover narrating the writing of Arletty’s missing father as she reads his nightmarish journal entries is a nice touch at first, like surreal poetry, but ends up feeling a little overplayed as it continues throughout the movie, eventually losing its effect.

Just when the film feels like it might be lacking in sleaze and sex, Arletty meets up with three other colorful characters at a hotel who bring a sexual nature to the film that seems out of place in something as dark and gloomy as MESSIAH OF EVIL; these being the mysteriously inquisitive aristocrat, Thom, played by Michael Greer, and his attractive “travelling companions” (lovers), Toni and Laura, played by Joy Bang and Anitra Ford. Out of place is never seen as a bad thing by me as long as it doesn’t hinder the enjoyment, and these three characters definitely enhance the film, with Toni and Laura adding a sexy side to the movie. However, it is not only the eye-candy that the two runaway bombshells provide that makes them an enhancing feature, but it is also their strange and unclear reasons for being here. Why are they following Thom like they’re his personal groupies into a place as dreadful and dull as the sleepy Pointe Dune? Is he that smooth, or is there something else going on? In fact, why is a lady-killer like Thom so interested in Pointe Dune? These questions are never addressed which I honestly felt was a good thing. Thom’s interest in the “Blood Moon” seems unnatural and unlikely. Perhaps he shares the same obsession with the moon and the ocean that the residents in Pointe Dune exhibit.

Arletty is not able to get useful information about her missing father from Thom and is basically shunned away by the three strangers who later show up in her father’s house the following night to her surprise. Nonetheless, she lets them stay and things get very interesting.

There is a fairly good on-screen chemistry between Arletty and Thom. Thom seems to lose interest in his attractive “travelling companions” and pursues Arletty, who is also attractive, but classier, less playfully sexy, and not openly promiscuous, which is probably something he’s not used to. Thom’s advances on Arletty are amusing and sort of smooth at the same time, in a James Bond sort of way, and if not for the impending doom probably would’ve worked (“you don’t just unzip a man and say goodnight”).

The monsters in the film are commonly referred to as zombies by fans and critics, which makes sense being that they have an overwhelming fixation with consuming meat, but I like to think of them as victims of a contagious madness that is not driven by an augmented primitive instinct to feed, but more by an obsession brought on by a spell or a curse.

The kill scenes in the movie do not score any points for being overtly gory, but two standout in particular and are remarkable, not for the kills themselves, but on the creative buildup to the kills. These are the semi-memorable death scenes in the grocery store and the movie theatre. The grocery store scene where one of the characters is locked in, pursued, and eaten by the locals, reminded me a lot of DAWN OF THE DEAD in that I sensed the walking dead consumerism satire from Romero’s film, even though this probably wasn’t the intention of the filmmakers being that it predates DAWN. Also, the movie theatre kill is my favorite. I won’t retell it to you, but like I said before, it is not the kill itself that stands out, but it is the creative and doomy situation the character is in that gets major “I’ve never seen that before” points.

MESSIAH OF EVIL does suffer from a common issue that most nightmare horror suffers from and that is the question; ‘why didn’t they just get in the car and leave’? Like in SUSPIRIA or HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, we forgive this lack of logic and accept that if they did drive away we wouldn’t have a show where the scriptwriter, playing God, gets to decide the fates and dooms of his or her characters for our amusement. Or one could also rationalize by accepting that, maybe, without knowing it; the characters were drawn further into their deadly situation subconsciously as if being controlled by the impending madness. Consider this: when Thom and Arletty decide to finally get the Hell out of there at the end of the movie, they attempt to escape by running to the beach and swimming out into the sea and into the heart of the evil rather than get in a car (there were two available) and drive out of there. Nonetheless, one shouldn’t let it hinder the enjoyment MESSIAH OF EVIL has to offer. The movie is open to interpretation, so if something doesn’t make sense or isn’t fully explained, either let it go, or try to come up with a rational explanation, get deep with it, and write a blog about it ;).

Director and co-scriptwriter Willard Huyck believed that his childhood love for H.P. Lovecraft comes through in the script, which is something that can be sensed from the prominent emphasis on madness, the ocean, and backwater town degenerates. The movie cuts to shots of the ocean frequently, which is sort of like the movies way of hinting at the source of the evil, which, like Cthulhu, lies sleeping at the bottom of the sea awaiting the right time for the moon to turn red and awaken to reclaim the Earth. The nocturnal ceremonies and cannibalistic behavior of the townspeople could also be seen as the result of dreams/nightmares sent from the “dark stranger” to prepare and herald his return.

When remembering this movie, most usually recall the supremely creepy albino trucker, played by Bennie Robinson (apparently his only film credit, according to the IMDB) who despite little acting and no role in the story is a very important addition, and if given the opportunity could’ve stolen more scenes based solely on the creep factor. This truck driver is in this film to please horror fans by eating beach rats and by riding around with murdered bodies in the back of his truck; making one thankful that such a place like Pointe Dune doesn’t exist.

"They're coming here. They're waiting at the edge of the city. They're peering around buildings at night, and they're waiting. they're waiting for you! And they'll take you one by one and no one will hear you scream. No one will hear you SCREAM!--Arletty/Marianna Hill

The Nude Vampire (1970)

2011-12-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

THE NUDE VAMPIRE has a lot going for it and is just as enjoyable as other early efforts from Jean Rollin (THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES and REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE), and is a masterpiece that I can’t help thinking ends up not getting the love it deserves on account of its low production and bizarre ‘out there’ feel; although it is getting a Blu-ray release this January along with a few other Rollin favorites.

A mysterious woman, Caroline Cartier, is stalked in the middle of the night by strange pursuers with animal masks. She runs into a well-dressed young gentleman, Pierre, played by Olivier Rollin (Rollin’s half-brother), who senses she is in danger and attempts to help her out, but with no such luck, as she is eventually shot by her masked pursuers and carried away to a clubhouse that happens to belong to Pierre's father, Radamante, Maurice Lemaitre, where nicely dressed people seem to aggregate. Concerned, the young man attempts to enter, but is refused by a gatekeeper who doesn’t let him in without an invitation.

The appearance of the stalkers in animal masks are an early sign of the ‘no-budget’ feel of the film, but they still manage to be eerily intriguing , and the particular sequence is so visually unique that it is hard not to be interested. During this sequence, the dissonant and screeching violin and a delirious sounding saxophone that can be heard blend into a cacophony at times. The music succeeds in setting an unusual mood that is just as weird as the movie. The violin will sometimes shriek out, resulting in a feeling that is like a slap to the senses.

When Pierre manages to gain entry to the nocturnal meetings, he finds that what might have been an exclusive private party at his father’s clubhouse turns out to be a meeting ground for a cult that worships the mysterious and alluring woman he met and saw shot on the streets.

Now alive and uninjured from the gunshot, she turns out to be a strange and beautiful goddess-like creature that is seemingly immortal. Randomly chosen cult members are willing to die for her, smiling while committing suicide as if they are proud to offer her blood nourishment with their deaths. Considering that she was trying to escape this place earlier and a sorrowful expression over her face after she feeds on a dead cult member, it almost seems like she is sort of a victim. Noticing this, Pierre develops an obsession with her. He later discovers that his father, along with a couple of bumbling researchers, is keeping her captive to try and study what makes her immortal.

Since this woman is obviously the title character, from here on out, she will be referred to as, the nude vampire, even though she mostly wears an orange see through nightgown.

An interesting touch, though not all that convincing since the nude vampire looks the same as any other human, is that whenever she is around, everyone adorns a sack over their heads, so that she may not see that she isn’t like them or so she doesn’t feel regret for not being human. With a little imagination this actually works in making this vampire feel like an outside entity.

My favorite is a marvelous standout moment when an army of vampires, like points of light, calmly emerge unexpectedly from the silence of an empty courtyard and march into a chateau with flame torches in hand, casting flowing silhouettes on the old chateau walls demonstrating fantastic use of shadow play. They’ve come to rescue the nude vampire held captive against her own will. This scene feels like a rebellion of some kind, and with the prevalent hippie look of the vampire group and the time-era, it also feels a little reminiscent of the 1967 “Summer of Love” counterculture peace movement of hippies converging from all over the world to San Francisco. The vampires show an entirely peaceful purpose without even so much as harming the 3 researchers who vainly attempt to gun them down. Being surprisingly friendly without shedding any blood, they seem to just want to liberate the nude vampire from imprisonment and, I don’t know, maybe for humans and vampires to coexist.

Aside from a beautiful ascetic and a fairly good story, the film does have its hoots, such as brain-numbing dialogue “she could be a robot” and amusing caricatures of researchers with one looking like Albert Einstein. A few extended erotic dance and posing sessions complete with spike nipple covers and long gold nails feel detached from the story, but also feel appropriately in-place for a movie called THE NUDE VAMPIRE. Also, an enjoyable artifact in the film is the delight of seeing double, as Rollin demonstrates a captivating visual obsession for the Gemini, with the inclusion of the Castel twins (Catherine and Marie-Pierre). They are at first like pets or fetishistic maids for Radamante; always together and always engaged in the same act, mirroring each other at times, but eventually join the vampire revolt.

Most remarkable is when after Pierre and the nude vampire fall in love, he gets to join her in her world. The vampire’s realm is shot at a beach where the white sands, white rocky cliffs, and cloudy skies give it a nice otherworldly feel. The vampires, or as they seem to be referred to at this point, evolved mutants, seem much more at home here and are uniformly dressed in red, white, and black attire, except for the leader, Michel Delahaye, whose fashion sense is more appropriate here than the silly getup he had going in the earthly realm. The grandmaster of this mutant race gives an ending speech that reminded me a little of Magneto or Professor Xavier.

The film is keen on captivating the viewer with visuals, as certain frames are extended out longer than necessary, such as a still and silent watchman with a deer mask standing high atop a dark rooftop. The scene is about 15 seconds long and would feel overextended if not for the fact that it is a very intriguing visual. A culmination of moments such as this causes THE NUDE VAMPIRE to feel like a work of art that one becomes fascinated and enamored with. The best way to enjoy the film is to get lost into the myriad of dark, Gothic, sexy, and sometimes kinky visuals that do not let up for a minute.

Caroline Cartier looks fantastic in this film and so in keeping up with the style of the nude vampire here are a few more see through nightgowns to closeout with. Enjoy.

Queens of Evil (1970)

2011-11-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

David, Ray Lovelock, is riding free with the wind in his hair and the beautiful ocean in the background. He is an eloper of society looking for freedom in a new world. What he ends up finding is more or less an exaggeration of what his free spirit has always desired in this rarely seen but marvelous film.

Following the music-video-like intro-credits, night falls and a shot of the lead character riding down a pitch black foggy highway in the middle of nowhere gives off a dark and uneasy feeling as he stops to help a stranded older looking gentleman, Gianni Santuccio, with a flat tire. A conversation of conflicting beliefs ensues and while still expressing appreciation for the help, this older man lights a cigar and takes no time to criticize David’s long hair, hippie clothes, and free-love ideals (Remind you of a similar moment with lovelock in THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE?) which are a strong contrast to the older man’s short grey hair, suit-and-tie, and enthusiasm for matrimony.

Nonetheless, David holds onto his pride while the well kempt man, who hasn’t given his name (he’s known as L’uomo/Il diavolo on the IMDB which is Italian for Man/The Devil), attempts to provoke him to ‘betray his ideals’ by making suggestions that are a forecast to a very provocative situation that David later finds himself in. The old man’s drawn-out advice feels too premeditated to not raise the suspicion that he may’ve been planning on meeting David all along. It doesn’t help that he stuck a nail in David’s
motorcycle tire while he was working either.

After finding the nail and being understandably annoyed, the Good Samaritan catches up to the old man and pulls alongside of him demanding an explanation, and eventually an accident results that seemingly kills the old man as he crashes into a tombstone while a creepy choir begins to sing that is reminiscent of THE BLIND DEAD theme song.

If this was me, I’d feel pretty bad about what happened, but David’s reaction, while not totally heartless (he does attempt to stop other passers to no avail), seems pretty carefree as he places a flower into the deceased’s coat pocket before going along on his merry way.

Later after making a detour into the woods, David stops to sleep in a storage shed next to an isolated house after assuming it to be empty. In the morning he’s startled and surprised to have the pleasure of meeting three captivating creatures living in the forest named Samantha, Bibiana, and Liv, played by Silvia Monti, Evelyn Stewart, and Haydée Politoff.

Like out of a dream, these three lovely young ladies happen to inhabit this cozy little country house that doesn’t seem very country on the inside, but more modern and high fashion. Oddly enough, despite being entirely isolated they still have knowledge of all the latest fashions.

David is seduced to stay awhile by their beauty as well as a high sugary carb breakfast consisting solely of huge cakes and coffee. Being that this is the first meal in the morning it gives me a stomachache just watching.

It is the odd solitude that makes these three women so alluring to David whom he compares to a lone apple tree in the middle of the woods. Outwardly, this place is like his personal Utopia that has been waiting for him all along where the women sympathize with his free-love philosophy, so it’s no wonder he decides to stay indefinitely despite the inherent fishiness of the whole situation.

"If I'm faithful to one woman it would mean that I'm unfaithful to all the others, and what did all the others do to me that I should be unfaithful to them?"--David/Ray Lovelock

Has David found the paradise that his free spirit was searching for all along? Has he died and gone to Heaven? Or is it really Hell?

Given the title of this movie “QUEENS OF EVIL”, it should be pretty obvious that these ladies are not what they seem to be. The girls have a creepy habit of disappearing into thin air, practicing rituals in the woods, and conversing with a mysterious man-in-black in the middle of the night. Most amusing is that each of the three girls has their own egotistic shrine with a giant black and white glamor shot. (A possible precursor to Argento’s three mothers?)

It seems that the primary objective is to get David to fall in love with each girl. While going through this, I constantly changed my mind as to which girl was my favorite, as the hippie has a particular love-episode with each one. Aside from a bit of teasing from Samantha riding around on David’s motorcycle before seducing him, the love scenes are surprisingly tender.

There is something very appealing about this movie that starts to hit me as it goes along and that is an undeniable fantasy feel. For instance, further in the woods there’s an opening where stands a castle that is under a spell that the girls seem connected to. Also, a terrific scene where Samantha offers David a cursed apple as well as the inclusion of harp laden theme music gives off the impression of being in a fairytale, particularly SNOW WHITE with a dash of LISA AND THE DEVIL for added flavor.

Later, David is invited to Liv’s party at the enchanted castle which happens to be full of aristocrats that all seem to be familiar with him. These partygoers are an embodiment of society and it almost starts to feel like it’s no mistake that David is here being assaulted with questions and undergoing what feels like an aggressive interrogation, as if they are trying to understand and study him.

My interpretation is this: David is a threat to their ways. He has the potential to influence and there are others like him, so they attempt to trap and study him. David is an eloper of the society that they have created and set forth and so it was necessary for him to be caught by being seduced into a false paradise, using Liv, Bibiana, and Samantha as bait. David was good and had ideas that could influence and direct the world from evil, and so evil seduced him in order to suppress the new ideas of his generation and stop his influence. David was a seed to a new and different way of life and dared to think unconventionally and so he needed to be contained and planted elsewhere where no one will notice the flowers of the new and beautiful world he could’ve brought.

QUEENS OF EVIL is another great Italian horror film that escaped my radar for a long time. It is currently hard to find, but a proper release could help elevate it beyond its unjust obscure status. Restored DVD releases seem to work pretty well as that’s what introduced me to the fantastic world of euro-horror that I never knew existed before and QUEENS OF EVIL deserves to be noticed by more fans of this ilk. They are out there.

Of additional note is that the theme song being played during David’s highway journey was performed by Lovelock himself. I was aware that Lovelock was a musician, but didn’t take notice of his work until now because the song is not bad at all.

Also, look forward to an awesome tripped-out dream sequence when David passes out in the woods during a thunderstorm. In the dream, he is taunted by his hosts who appear more in the guise of what they really are. The dream is an embodiment of what makes surreal erotic euro-horror so great. What that is specifically words cannot describe, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.

Screen grabs are courtesy of DrMuga75 from Horror Cult Classics

Beyond the Darkness: buio omega (1979)

2011-10-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

In a dream, someone once told me that nostalgia is the mind’s inability to cope with change. The desire to make things the way they once were, when times were happier, can be overwhelming, but we must find comfort in believing that things can be better and that new warmer days will be on the horizon. Some find the ability to carry on by fondly remembering the past in the form of keepsakes and mementos and accept the fact that there is nothing that can be done other than to move on with strength and a resolve for a better tomorrow, while others prefer to do things a bit differently. This is definitely the case for the loathsome and childish lead character in Joe D’Amato’s BUIO OMEGA.

Orphaned Frank, played by Kieran Canter, is a taxidermist with a large inheritance who has just suffered the loss of the love of his life, Anna, Cinzia Monreale of THE BEYOND. Stricken by grief, Frank commits a highly objectionable act of exhuming his recently deceased girlfriend’s corpse before preserving and making a doll out of her in order to still be close to her, to still be able to talk to her, sleep with her, and express his never ending love while still being able to look into her eyes. And woe unto any who would interfere…

Though it may seem out of place to some, the progressive rock soundtrack in this movie from GOBLIN is bitchin’ and gives me an impulse to air-bass-guitar. It lends to BUIO OMEGA a flavor that is less horror and more sleaze, violence, and rock ‘n’ roll. Nonetheless, horror mainstays are all here such as a giant mansion, a graveyard, gore, and a knife wielding PSYCHO-esque housekeeper (Norman Bates’ sister, perhaps?). Yet, it is not the music or the story of a young man’s yearning for his love so cruelly taken from him that causes BUIO OMEGA to be an astonishing achievement, but it is the way that D’amato pushes the boundaries of ‘nasty’ through the roof and way beyond anything that would already be considered unwholesome and just plain wrong, which causes BUIO OMEGA to really stand out and be forever remembered as one of the crazier and most screwed up forays into dementia that exploitation cinema has to offer.

The gore in BUIO OMEGA is highly novel, and not just for its time as it still has the power to shock audiences today. Unless one is already familiar with this film’s reputation, the delivery of the more grotesque elements will come as a major but pleasant surprise to unsuspecting viewers. There is a superficial picturesque facade to the initial look and feel that shields the cruel demons beneath. Just like the lead character, Frank, the film has a very polar element consisting of a wide range between elegant and distasteful or charming and demented. The Mansion and the Italian countryside that the story takes place in is very lovely and enjoyable and Frank’s losing his life-love has a touching romantic tragedy feel. However, enjoyers of romance and lovely settings will likely be put-off when the blood starts to hit the fan, and anyone impatiently waiting for action might not make it through the first soap-opera-like 20 minutes. But those who make it to the embalming scene without getting bored or past this scene without turning the movie off in disgust will ultimately find that they’ve stumbled upon a piece of horror/trash/exploitation gold.

"Death has no power to separate us" Frank/kieran Canter

The animal models around Frank’s workshop suggests that he is a skilled taxidermist, and like a grieving pet owner having Fido stuffed and displayed on his favorite place next to the fireplace, Frank uses this skill to embalm, preserve, and place his deceased girlfriend’s body in the bed next to him. Now, taxidermy is different than embalming and doesn’t even involve dissection or removing organs, but merely skinning the animal cadaver and applying preservation chemicals to the skin before mounting it onto a model form. Nonetheless, Frank’s experience as a taxidermist has caused him to come off as a very experienced embalmer as well. It’s surprising that his girlfriend wasn’t embalmed before being buried, but that’s OK, because if she was, we wouldn’t have a key scene in this film that, among many others, contributes to its notoriety.

Many could poke fun at gore effects from 1979, but nothing comes even close to the realistic effect that is BUIO OMEGA’s staged but very detailed embalming that takes the visceral image of open body organs to a very convincing level. This part is not only shockingly realistic, but purposefully tries to make it disgusting and amusing with organs being haphazardly dropped into a bucket, brains being pumped out, and heart felt cannibalism as Frank grabs ahold of his girlfriend’s heart, kisses it gently before biting into it as blood sprays out the aortic valve, likely resulting in discomforting laughter and screams from the viewer. Not for the faint of heart.

If someone had told me that D’Amato had Canter cut open a real corpse and removed its organs for the camera, I’d believe it. In fact, this scene was notorious for many thinking it was a real cadaver dissection. It will gross-out anyone and even surpasses the organ puking scene from Fulci’s THE GATES OF HELL. I can’t help sending my compliments to Canter and Monreale for actually going through with this and approaching it professionally.

Frank’s character is like a little child who refuses to move on, stubbornly deluding himself that what has already past can remain and nothing will change, by keeping his preserved dead lover in the bed next to him. One day, while out on a jog, he comes across a blonde Jogger, Anna Cardini, who provides a convenient opportunity for Frank to get to know her when she injures herself and agrees to go back to his place for medical treatment and casual sex. Meeting this blonde jogger ends up portraying Frank’s inability to move on. Here, he has found someone new, but his attachment to the past results in a horrible deed that completely ruins what could have been a wonderful future. We also find out that Frank is a biter.

"Don't worry darling, Iris is here... Feels better now, doesn't it? Yes, my little Frank is better now. Good clever Iris knows how to take care of him, doesn't she?" Iris/Franca Stoppi

Another interesting addition to the household is Frank’s housekeeper and partner in crime, Iris, Franca Stoppi of Bruno Mattei’s VIOLENCE IN A WOMAN’S PRISON and WOMAN’S PRISON MASSACRE, who unbeknownst to Frank was responsible for Anna’s death (this really isn’t a spoiler since it happens at the beginning of the movie). Each time Frank commits a gruesome murder, we find out that Iris had been standing by watching all along looking almost impressed with a “what’s my little Frank done now” attitude. The relationship between Frank and Iris is twisted, as she provides him with assurance and sexual comfort by exploiting Frank’s apparent Oedipus complex. She even helps him dispose of his victims in a few frighteningly realistic and highly disturbing manners that real serial killers have resorted to. Iris does desire to marry Frank, but her help ends up assuring her no place in Frank’s love-life and the end result of their relationship is not pretty.

I can’t help thinking that most who view this film would want to forever forget it or at least never want to see it again, so it makes me wonder why I’ve had a fondness for it for many years now, re-watching it when it feels necessary and always taking the opportunity to recommend it. Maybe it’s just my being impressed with what the film accomplishes with demented elements that are depicted in ways that were way ahead of their time and unlike anything available in 1979 without apologizing and without respect for the limits of good taste. This was my first D’Amato experience and naturally I explored more and only found similar, but not equal enjoyment in some of D’Amato’s trendy but highly bizarre EMANUELLE films he directed, but aside from that I’ve hardly been as impressed. I did enjoy ANTHROPOPHAGUS as well as DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER but the content of BUIO OMEGA still makes those films pale in comparison.

Night of the Seagulls (1976)

2011-10-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

The Templar zombies in the Blind Dead films are a good example of a simple idea that really hits the mark. They’ve been fondly remembered for decades by fans and still have an onscreen impact that is just as powerful today as it was in the 70s. Their iconic doom-laden theme music by Antón Garcia Abril enhances the believability of the creeping-death that is Amando De Ossorio’s blind dead.

The opening to NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS of a woman being brutally sacrificed by the not-yet-undead Knights Templar is effective but not surprising to those already familiar with Ossorio’s films. During the sacrifice ritual while these evil men stand around observing the terrible act, I found myself shouting aloud “don’t you guys have anything better to do than torment, stab, and eat this poor young lady?!”. It truly is a disgusting scene that was still very well done. Afterwards, the poor mangled and severed body is left to the crabs in a chilling sequence that I primarily remember this film for.

The shock and unpleasant feeling from the opening is shifted to a more melancholic vibe when the story transitions to present day while a mood setting synthesizer plays over the introduction of the 2 main characters, Dr. Henry Stein and his wife Joan Stein, played by Victor Petit and the always welcome Spanish horror regular Maria Kosty. The seaside village they’ve arrived at doesn’t feel like present day, in fact the film feels like an era piece, but Joan’s mall fashion wardrobe as well as the car they arrive in serves as a reminder that we are still in modern day Spain; just in a village that time forgot.

The reason Joan and Henry have decided to live in a place that Joan immediately describes as primitive and horrible is so Henry can work as the local Doctor. Henry sort of plays this off as his duty as a doctor and as he claims these villagers have a right to be treated. This is very admirable, but unfortunately the town harbors a dark secret that the inhabitants have kept under control using unspeakable means and they’ll be damned if the new arrivals disrupt it; lest they suffer the destruction of their village.

Though slow at times with less than convincing dubbing and a very old fashioned feel, NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS manages to be interesting. The mysterious sleepy village has an authentic feel of sorrow and pain and its isolation has resulted in something unnatural and horrible to take place that has remained unnoticed by the rest of the world. This almost feels a bit like something out of a Lovecraft tale, in fact NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS is considered to be the Lovecraftian of the Blind Dead tetralogy which makes sense if one considers the ghoulish sea god statue as well as the presence of flying seagulls at night being the damned spirits of the sacrificed girls; an idea that is not that far from the whippoorwills in Lovecraft’s THE DUNWICH HORROR.

The frequent use of day-for-night filming is a result of the limitations of the filmmakers, but it ends up working in the movie’s favor by adding a lot of atmospheric value. Those moments when Henry and Joan come outside of their home in the middle of the night to investigate strange noises coming from the beach only to stumble out in what appears to be the middle of the day doesn’t come off as silly in this case, but very surreal and enjoyable.

About midway through the film, viewers are treated to a scene that is similar to the sacrificial sequence from the beginning of the movie with one of the young village girls, Tilda Flanagan played by Julia Saly. The sequence is practically redone in its entirety with crawling crabs and all (minus the flesh eating, ironically), but this time the Templar Knights are in their undead form which more than makes up for the repetitive feel of watching it all over again. Saly seems to me an actress who endures a lot for horror fans, such as allowing these crabs to crawl all over her, and who can forget when she took a painful looking hit to the back by being slammed into the side of a giant cauldron by Paul Naschy in a slow motion action scene from THE NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF? Way to take one for the fans Julia, seriously.

Like in RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD, Ossorio makes use of the creepy and questionably harmless village idiot. In this case, it is the pitiful Teddy, played by José Antonio Calvo, whose facial contortion, ridiculous dubbing, and highly abnormal gait cause him to forever be etched into viewer’s minds. However, there ends up not being any comic relief with Teddy because, in a way, he is another tragic victim of the occurrences in the town and is abused, beaten, and at one point nearly killed by the townsmen giving that additional depth of the humans being more despicable than the film’s monsters at times.

Paul Naschy wrote that Amando De Ossorio once turned him down for a role in a film because he thought that he was too muscular to be an actor. Considering this and from observing the film, it seems that Ossorio was geared towards set rules and archetypes which is part of what contributes to the old fashioned feel of NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS. The women seem to serve no other purpose but to scream, panic, and get easily scared while the macho male lead has all of the answers and is able to keep his head together to figure out how to take the zombies down and ultimately destroy them.

Although harmed from that all too familiar NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD scenario towards the end, I think NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS is still the best Blind Dead film overall. TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD had the best ending, RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD had the most action, and THE GHOST GALLEON was better than I was expecting, but the fourth film is solid all-around and ended up being my favorite in the long run.

Blogger Zombie Walk Feature: Burial Ground (1980)

2011-09-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

If a zombie is supposed to be a degraded form of pure motorized instinct to carnivorously feed, why do they still have the ingenuity to use axes, power saws, and battering rams, or to throw knives with extreme precision to get what they want? I suppose there is some sort of unholy guidance that accompanies the feeding frenzy of the walking corpses in Andrea Bianchi’s BURIAL GROUND THE NIGHTS OF TERROR.

Who knows what the filmmakers were thinking while making this, but this is a zombie film of recognizable influences that is still unlike any other zombie film by a long shot. The zombie makeup from Mauro Gavazzi is overdone to the point of being excessive, but the result is still very cool and also quite nauseating to look at. There is a lot of attention to detail for most of the zombies, such as maggots, murky green blood, and wormy eyes, and the smell of death can be sensed right from the viewer’s TV screen every time there is a close-up of one of these flesh eaters.

BURIAL GROUND feels Influenced by Fulci’s ZOMBI 2 as well as Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with that familiar scenario of a band of humans locking themselves inside an architecture as the living dead outside desperately try to get in. When I watch it, I often find myself chuckling at the sight of the walking dead, but also a bit ‘creeped out’ and a little scared.

The first 20 minutes includes a fair share of softcore love scenes as well as some rolling around on the villa grounds makin’ out as the vacationing couples enjoy the country side. The initial non-zombie ‘sexy-time’ action that takes place while the walking corpses slowly make their way to the mansion is not unfamiliar territory for Bianchi, who helmed directorial duties for the sleazy EXORCIST influenced MALABIMBA or subpar giallo STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER. The women of BURIAL GROUND are terrific, especially the ravishing Mariangela Giordano, and the men could easily pass for swinging 80s porn stars. When the zombies finally arrive to the villa, it is nonstop fun and craziness or better yet luridness until the end.

The death of the house maid is a very inventive, dark, and extremely grim sequence involving a decapitation with a scythe from the second story of the villa. When another character stumbles upon the body hanging out the window he acts appalled, but then decides to throw the rest of her to the zombies outside as if it’s best she not go to waste.

By the later portion of the film, the zombie close-ups start to feel slightly monotonous. In order to break up this feeling, the film introduces something entirely different that was subtly hinted at earlier on, and that’s the disturbing relationship between the young boy, Michael, and his mother Evelyn, Giordano. Certain filming laws in Italy forbade the use of a child actor for this sort of thing and so Evelyn’s son was played by then 25 year old Peter Bark. Michael’s attraction and passes to his mother may’ve been an unnecessary addition to the film, but it nonetheless contributed big time to its memorability.

The soundtrack is not remarkable on its own, but works for BURIAL GROUND with my favorite theme consisting of unnatural sounding bloops and bleeps set over a surreal music piece that ends up being both melodic and dissonant, giving a haunting ambiance to the zombie plagued villa in the country side.

The special effects from Gino De Rossi (not to be confused with Giannetto De Rossi) consists of excessive visuals of organ tearing and chomping that are likely to ruin a few lunches for some, and I love it. The immensely satisfying ending, which appears to take place on a different movie set still under construction, has to be seen to be believed.

The characters act dumb, but this isn’t surprising since dumb characters are needed to make the situation interesting. The way everyone opts to run back into the villa in order to get away from the zombies and trapping themselves inside might have been the film’s own way of satirizing NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

BURIAL GROUND is extremely entertaining and sleazy and recommended to any zombie movie fan, good or bad. It sucks, but I love it and so have several people I’ve shown it to, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you’d likely be doing yourself a favor checking it out. It is available on Blu-ray disc.

I’d like to say thank you to Autumnforest of Ghost Hunting Theories for coordinating this Blogger Zombie Walk. It was a lot of fun preparing for it. The following links will lead you to the other participants in the Zombie Walk, so be sure to stop and visit every one of these other sites today.

Ghost Hunting Theories

Above the Norm: Bizarre Arizona

Zombies Everywhere

Holly's Horrorland

Little Gothic Horrors

Anything Horror

Katy Bennett Horror Writer and Poet

Bubba's Place

Horror Smorgasbord

Gnostalgia

Monkey Man

Words and Music

Red Shoes Chronicles

The Wolf's Eyes

My Day in a Sentence

Pixie's Horror Galore

Strange State

The Misadventures of HalloweeNut

Halloween Blues

Kweeny Todd

The California Blogging Massacre

Horror Shock Lolipop

Vanessa Morgan

Improbable Frontiers

No Really, You Can Eat It

Art By Living Dead Girl Nicole

Two Gory Chicks

A Dust Bunny in the Wind

A Ghoul's Best Friend

Zombies Are Magic

Cherry Neko Saves the World

Tall Tales

The Haunted Rose

The Rotting Zombie

Halloween Overkill

Out of the Shadows

Keyhole Gallery

Creepy Glowbugg

Bifocal Univision

Haiku-Koo-Koo

Sherry Soule

Anchors and Roses

Paranormal Researchers Group

Whispering Pines History

Lovely Miss Megs

Sean Thomas Fisher's Blogwash

Rise and Fight

Stump Town Horror

LoliClown's Little Blog of Horror

Zombies Can't Love

Books and Beyond

The Grave Bandits

Screaming Goregasms

Lazy Daisy Life

Icky Monster

Pretty in Fiction

Ivy's Closet

Justine's Halloween

Annie Walls

Just Johnny

Minions of Misery

2011-09-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

Keith Woodruff, the creative writer of the horror blog L a u g h i n g Scared, has selected me to join the ranks of the “Minions of Misery” and it is now my duty to share some dark misery in the form of a dark book, a dark movie, and a dark secret, before selecting 3 other dark souls worthy to carry on the tradition.

1) A dark book

My old physical chemistry book

Roughly seven pounds with 1,360 all black and white pages (no pretty pictures at all), densely packed with equation derivations and theories, and resembles the Cambridge Dictionary. Unfortunately, I forgot everything I learned from it, but maybe that's because I did not want to remember the teachings from that dark and evil book.

2) A dark movie

Dark Waters (1994)

My favorite horror film from the 90s is a dark and atmospheric piece that Argento and Lovecraft fans should find irresistible.

3) A dark secret about myself

I am very nocturnal. I haven’t been to bed before 3 in the morning in the last 6 years. I mean just have a look at the time I posted this.

4) Three others to continue the task of sharing their misery (gosh that sounds harsh).

This is sort of a promotional blog award I suppose, and I’ve noticed that it has been making its rounds, but let’s not stop it here:

Jenny Spencer of The Bloody Iris blog and fellow contributor to Italian Film Review: Any self respecting fan of horror/slasher/giallo films should follow this writer at the aforementioned websites immediately.

Cinemarchaeologist of The Dig: I honestly feel that the cinemarchaeologist has made some great contributions in the comments section to some of the postings here on this blog for some very dark films. You’d be doing yourself a great favor to follow this writer.

Kweeny Todd: A new fascinating blogger that seems to have come out of nowhere taking the horror blogging world by storm whose article Genre Talk: Goths and Horror is highly recommended.

In closing, I would like to say that I love and appreciate every one of my readers.

Jess Franco's The Rites of Frankenstein (1972)

2011-09-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

The greatest mystery in life is perhaps life itself. The answer to this mystery has constantly been sought after through the ages, and as we progress ever closer to the truth the question arises as to what to do with it once it has been found.

Jess Franco’s film plays upon a controversial notion that synthetically creating life is unethical, or more appropriately in the case of Dr. Frankenstein, played by Dennis Price, evil and maddening. This is the understanding one gets when witnessing the regretful facial expressions of Frankenstein’s lab assistant Morpho, Franco himself, reluctantly flipping the switch to give life to Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, a silvery almost robotic looking monster, played by Fernando Bilbao (the brutal axe wielding giant from THE VAMPIRES’ NIGHT ORGY). The Doctor’s deeds, as he claims, are for the sake of science and progression, which is an admirable motivation. However, the immediate arrival of 2 thieves in the night, Anne Libert and Luis Barboo, sabotaging the project and stealing the corpse goes to show that not everyone will have such pure intentions. The overall message here is that Dr. Frankenstein’s creation is not inherently evil, but becomes evil in the wrong hands, and the wrong hands in this case is Cagliostro, Howard Vernon, a mad and evil warlock with bigger plans.

Even though the Frankenstein monster is the headline of this film, Anne Libert steals the show as a blind cannibalistic harpy named Melisa, much the same way she steals the show as lady death in Franco’s A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD. Libert’s delirious performance here is amusing and way over the top and I salute her for it. She was entirely enigmatic and silent as the lady in black in AVATLD, but is very verbal here and even squawks like a bird of prey with grin inducing overdubs of what sounds like a falcon. Given Libert’s ability to just own every scene she’s in, I honestly think that she could be thought of as another Barbara Steele, albeit much more erotic.

When Cagliostro and Melisa do their evil bidding together they act as if they are intoxicated from what must be the sweetest drug known to man. There appears to be a transformative resonance between the 2, because as Cagliostro emits magnetic waves to Melisa she speaks of prophetic images that come to her mind which in turn results in whatever insane idea this madman has next. An example of an insane idea from the twisted and centuries old warlock would be to steal the Frankenstein monster with the intention to mate it with his own creation built from the different parts of the most-perfect females of the village in order to bring forth an evil master race known as “Panthos”. Sounds like a reasonably achievable goal to me….

The wildest moment in the film is when Melisa is rewarded by Cagliostro and given access to a doomed man chained up in the dungeon. Although this is a very bad situation for the poor locked up guy, the scene still manages to be sexy in a kinky sort of way as she ravishes and eats her chained up prey.

As usual, I was happy to see Franco’s most regular actor and life partner Lina Romay, who appears in the film as Cagliostro’s bastardized daughter Esmeralda, or at least that’s what I interpreted her as. Superficially these segments with Romay feel detached from the movie and were filmed in a day for night manner with very harsh natural lighting that made it difficult to recognize Romay. From what can be made out, Esmeralda appears as a gypsy woman with thigh high boots, looking very stoned as she wanders the forested mountains or provocatively on all fours gazing into a stream while receiving profound telepathic messages from a supreme entity claiming to be her master. These segments with Esmeralda occur frequently and are drawn out to the point of almost borderline tedious, but are still beautiful in a dreamy sort of way and believe it or not are very important to the plot. It is a bit confusing and I could be wrong, but my interpretation is that the eldest female villager had a child with Cagliostro, this child being Esmeralda, who carries inside her (hopefully through some act of wizardry) the reincarnation of Cagliostro. If this is consistently the case for every generation of rebirth then it is to be assumed that Cagliostro’s secret to immortality is to impregnate and be reborn through his own daughter. A bizarre take on procreation, but bizarre is the name of the game with Franco.

So let’s go back to Frankenstein’s monster now, which is a clear cut case of a dangerous experiment out of control and it stands to reason that someone has to do something about it. A suitable task for Frankenstein’s daughter, Vera, Beatrice Savón, whose ingenuity of the situation goes to show that mad female scientist are not to be underrepresented in the nineteenth century (a feat also done remarkably well by Rosalba Neri in LADY FRANKENSTEIN). We are introduced to Vera at her father’s funeral, but there’s more to this woman than meets the eye because she later exhumes her father’s corpse with a resolve to honor and avenge the shafted doctor. Vera seems to almost accidently learn how to use her father’s “bad sci fi movie” lab equipment all too conveniently and is able to briefly animate him. If only science was always this easy and serendipitous.

If Frankenstein’s monster, a killer harpy, and a cruel evil sorcerer aren’t enough for you, then expect the monster-madness to soar through the roof upon the arrival of the Panthos monsters, who I’m going to describe here as virulent cosmic beings cloaked in radiant white bed sheets emerging from the deepest regions of the misty forest where nightmare and the waking world become one. Cagliostro’s plan to create a vivacious female monster will mark the dawn of a new era for this sinister race and so several types of creatures from hooded skeleton to Vulcan gather around to witness the sacrifice and beheading of the abducted Madame Orloff, Britt Nichols (a fine choice), whose head is to be the crowning spectacle of Cagliostro’s monster of beauty and perfection. It becomes obvious that Cagliostro is playing God with his own twisted version of Adam and Eve.

Though a fun schlocky monster movie, THE RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN is not Franco’s best (that would be something like SINNER: DIARY OF A NYMPHOMANIAC), but definitely not his worst (this is arguable, but I’m going with KILLER BARBYS). Fans of A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD will find a lot to like here and should feel at home with the familiar cast and building exteriors. In addition, there’s a surprisingly good deal of action with the Frankenstein creature going pro-wrestler on some of the undead cult members. Also, Howard Vernon is terrific and full of enthusiasm and like in THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF feels like he was just born to play a bad guy for Franco.

Join Us

2011-09-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

For those that don’t already know, there will be a BLOGGER ZOMBIE WALK event on September 30th that is being run by the intriguing Autumnforest, author of a really fun blog called GHOST HUNTING THEORIES. I’m looking forward to including AT THE MANSION OF MADNESS in this zombie-loving event and encourage others to consider checking it out. There are 50 participants so far, but 'the more the merrier', so click on the link--> HERE to be redirected to GHOST HUNTING THEORIES to learn all of the details. You know you want to….

Dario Argento's Inferno (1980)

2011-08-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

SUSPIRIA was an extremely successful international hit for Dario Argento and he was faced with distributors wanting more of the same. The result is INFERNO, another surreal journey through trippy colorful sets and stylish horror scenarios, to the heart of a profound evil hidden away in a threatening architecture, like a secret for the film’s protagonist to unveil. INFERNO is a sequel to SUSPIRIA, but it was unlikely that a sequel was initially planned, so INFERNO takes on the task of relating the 2 films at the start by accounting the legend of the Three Mothers through a male voiceover that sounds while protagonist Rose (Irene Miracle) is reading a copy of an evil book, simply titled THE THREE MOTHERS.

Now you don’t need to see SUSPIRIA first to enjoy INFERNO, in fact if there’s that little chance that you haven’t seen SUSPIRIA yet, I’d recommend checking out INFERNO first because there seems to be an inevitable comparison viewers make between the 2 that really ends up being an unfair fight for INFERNO. So, for the time being, I’m going to try to resist comparing the 2 films and instead focus only on INFERNO.

INFERNO is a riddle in itself with a story based around 3 keys that characters must uncover in order to discover the truth behind the madness. The narration sort of disorients the viewer by shifting between 3 protagonists for the first half, giving it almost an episodic feel. It is unusual and at the same time very interesting that we at first spend some weird moments getting acquainted with the character of Rose sending a letter to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey) studying music in Rome before the story abruptly shifts to one of Mark’s classmates, Sara (Eleonora Giorgi), who happens to pick up the letter instead. When Sara reads the letter she ends up being so disturbed and troubled by what she’s read that on her way home she makes a detour to the library to check out a copy of THE THREE MOTHERS, a book that turns out to be more threatening than the Necronomicon. It seems rather hard to believe that a grown woman would be this influenced by the contents of a letter. It’s almost as if Sara is demonstrating a childlike impressionability.

The following scene of Sara at the Library is fabulous and consists of terrific cinematography and dusty old bookshelves that tower to dizzying heights. A sinister stare from a young lady studying ends up giving off a surreal feeling that something very evil and powerful happens to be stalking Sara.

Due to the high density of disjointed story ideas and emphases on intriguing visuals, the overall vibe of INFERNO is that of so-much-going-on-with-so-little-happening. Or is it, so-much-happening-with-so-little-going-on? But nonetheless, it’s is all very unique and enjoyable, and I think I can confidently say that I’ve never seen anything else quite like INFERNO.

A frequent use of simultaneous red, blue, and greenish-yellow background lighting contributes to INFERNO’s highly unique feel as well as a sense of existing in an entirely different world, perhaps the realm of the evil entity that has established its rule over the ancient New York Apartment or the marvelous library/alchemy lab in Rome.

The main villain showcased is the Mother of Darkness, who is described as the most evil of the 3 sisters, but the Mother of Tears (Ania Pieroni) makes an appearance in Rome, and she is described as the most beautiful of the sisters. A glimpse of her mysterious presence during Mark’s music class does indeed prove her to be the most beautiful. Having her show up during Mark’s class isn’t entirely nonsensical. I thought of it as an indication that the letter Rose sent to Mark was haunted by The Mother of Tears, who put a spell on Mark, hindering him from being able to read it.

I can’t help feeling that the actors in this film may’ve been lost, almost like lost children in search of their mothers. In fact, Argento’s intention was to give the characters a childlike personality, and I could definitely sense this from how easily each character buys into the Three Mothers legend, becoming curious and easily drawn into something no sane adult would ever consider or believe. Suddenly Sara’s response after reading the letter doesn’t seem so silly anymore from this perspective. I believe that the idea is that everything seems much more frightening from the vantage point of a child.

The character of Mark comes off as confused, exhausted, and very much in the dark the entire time. This was likely the result of an actor who was very much confused about the story he was acting in, but this ends up working out because it mirrors the situation that the character is in. Nonetheless, McCloskey is probably the lesser of Argento’s leads because he really does seem wooden and stands around confused much of the time before deciding to bang a hole in the floor after recalling a phrase from Rose’s letter and stumbling upon the final key. Mark’s journey to the truth is very climatic, taking place between the walls of the apartment building, and is enhanced with fire and some great operatic rock music from Keith Emerson that also serves as a very fun Three Mothers theme song.

The apartment building in the film must be very evil and elusive because it does not seem to comply with any fire code. There are no extinguishers or smoke alarms and the fire department doesn’t arrive until the entire building is ablaze. But of course, what would a movie called INFERNO be without a fiery inferno?

Argento’s knack for style and attention to detail has a wonderful way of making something that would otherwise be normal and mundane, like mailing a letter, interesting. In fact, INFERNO is probably the most stylish of Argento’s filmography.

Viewers are in for a visual and terrifying treat when Rose accidently drops her apartment keys in a water hole before deciding to jump in and swim after them. What follows is the unveiling of an entire room underwater, full of antique and sinister looking furniture, and is more or less a deliberate attempt to break the Gothic room cliché in a horror film by just filling it with water for the sake of style.

There are several great kill scenes with remarkable performances from the actors, but the one that wins over the rest is the rat attack on the antique dealer, Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff), in the park. This was a scene Argento dreamed up while viewing Central Park from a window in the hotel he was staying at.

Another very amusing kill is a scene involving an all-out attack from an army of cats on the Countess Elise Delon Van Adler (Daria Nicolodi), and is something that has to be seen to be believed.

INFERNO was the last film the great Italian filmmaker Mario Bava ever worked on. Bava was solely responsible for some of the film’s more remarkable effects as well as a number of standout sets. Argento felt that certain sequences would require very complicated effects, but Bava managed to pull off these effects using very simple means with remarkable results. And all of the gloved and scaly clawed hands you see doing the stabbing and guillotining are Argento’s own hands, not because he’s an exhibitionist as he says, but because he knows how to make scenes with hands very dramatic, a statement very few will disagree with after viewing much of Argento’s filmography.

"Mater Tenebrarum, Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum, but men call us by a single name, a name which strikes fear into everyone's heart. They call us Death!!!"--The Mother of Darkness

Even if you have or haven’t seen this, I’d recommend taking the time to do yourself a favor by watching INFERNO’S sensational trailer and be prepared to have the movie’s theme song stuck in your head for a while. Also, if you are prone to falling asleep to older foreign horror films or don’t plan on watching this, checking out the trailer would be very useful since it seriously contains a healthy dose of the type of entertainment INFERNO has to offer in only 3 and a half minutes, versus the film's lengthy 106 minute run time.

Paul Naschy's HUMAN BEASTS (1980)

2011-07-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

Is it absurd to believe that negative actions or foul deeds can sometimes not have consequences? It really would be comfortable to know that some form of universal order exists to bring those who’ve escaped punishment for murder, genocide, and torture to justice, so that no fiendish monster would ever truly be off the hook, in this life or the next. The message in Paul Naschy’s HUMAN BEASTS is that redemption in the universe is unavoidable and that no matter how you’ve managed to escape your unspeakable deeds you shall still eventually “reap what you sow”.

HUMAN BEASTS can be viewed as an action/crime/heist film turned horror that features ghostly presences, nightmare sequences, man eating pigs, and family practiced cannibalism that fans of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE might dig. Scripted, directed, and co-produced by Paul Naschy who also stars as the protagonist, this film is definitely his baby and is still considered to be woefully overlooked despite a pristine DVD release in 2007 from Deimos Entertainment.

Naschy plays Bruno Rivera who after double crossing his lover during a diamond robbery heist and escaping redemption (for the time being), ultimately finds himself trapped in a HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN. Yes, just like the American title of Naschy’s Spanish giallo better known as BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL. But unlike that film, these women really are psychotic which just leads to some really great stuff courtesy of Naschy’s brilliant and ever versatile mind.

The soundtrack to this film is very enjoyable and fits HUMAN BEASTS perfectly. There are 2 unforgettable and extremely bitchin theme songs worth mentioning here. My favorite of these 2 themes is from Ennio Morricone, and it’s a spine chilling but melodic choir chanting piece that supplements the beginning and ending credits of the film. The other is an unidentified action oriented piece with Morricone/Nicolai style female vocals that is well used during a chase scene between a bloodily wounded Bruno and his scorned and extremely pissed off (for good reason) ex-lover with a machine gun, Mieko (Eiko Nagashima).

After the chase, Bruno passes out in the middle of the scorching hot forest before waking up in a wonderful mansion, bandaged up and surrounded by a doctor, Don Simón (Lautaro Murúa), and his 2 lovely daughters, Mónica and Alicia (Silvia Aguilar and Azucena Hernández). What sort of Karma is this one may think? Why are some of the worst men always so fortunate? Well the universe seems to work in strange ways….

The mansion in the film has been featured in numerous other Spanish horror films and I personally like to call it “The Spanish House of Usher”. There, while recovering and having nightmares that include his ex in total vindictive mode, without any effort at all, Bruno manages to enjoy the sexy delights of both of Don Simón’s beautiful daughters, who happen to prefer living all alone in this isolated and claustrophobic mansion.

Aside from all of the fun this film is, there’s a prevalent theme of misguided trust from beginning to end. This cynical portrayal of trusting the wrong people and concealed ill-intentions of so-called friends is a reflection of Naschy’s own outlook on life at the time of producing this film.

Those who’ve seen a good deal of Naschy’s films may notice that he’s crafted a familiar but altogether different type of character that really is an interesting progression to what fans are used to seeing. Bruno is bad, but not Alaric de Marnac bad (A nasty satanic warlock that Naschy played in HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, and PANIC BEATS), and is sort of a gentleman with a polite and innocent side that makes it hard to believe that there is a violent and greedy human beast beneath the facade. Bruno also has this odd likability and ends up being the type one can’t help but still worry about even after knowing he is a double crossing killer. It’s not unusual for viewers to suddenly find themselves on the bad guy’s side all of a sudden. I mean who didn’t end up concerned for little Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

The film does have its fair share of eerie moments with my favorite being the two close-up shots of actress Julia Saly’s beautifully creepy eye (which I’ve chosen to not give away with a screen grab, so just watch for it if you ever check this out). Saly plays the role of a hidden unknown character in the house whose significance to the story is revealed during the films climax. She’s played off as a possible ghost who silently watches Bruno, effectively adding an eerie feeling of being watched by a ghost while sleeping or making love.

An unexpected and entertaining costume dinner party adds an element of comedy which ends up transcending weird and outlandish and may not be to everyone’s liking, but nonetheless should be thought of as the films way of lightening up a bit and taking a moment to throw all standards of convention out the window. Who needs normal? I’ll take crazy batshit insane over normal anyday, and I just can’t help admiring when Naschy seems to purposefully share his hilarious resemblance to Napoleon.

Like a lot of great horror films, HUMAN BEASTS also benefits from a bloody and entertainingly dramatic ending, guaranteed to raise viewer’s pulses.

Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery (1981)

2011-07-03T04:50:00.000-07:00

Oh glorious haunted New England mansion…. A supreme visual brought to life with the sound of Gothic CASTLEVANIA-esque theme music by Walter Rizzati, tombstones, and leafless winter trees. What splendid grandeur and majesty you emit against the daytime sky and how even more beautiful you are at night… What evil cosmic secrets do you hold? How I’d love to see what fate would befall a family that was to all of a sudden move in and inhabit you. What’s that you say? I can? In a film called HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY.

It’s been blogged about a thousand times and reviewed to death, but I still feel that Lucio Fulci’s HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY deserves all of the love it can get. The film primarily concerns the Boyle family who are played by the likeable Fulci fan favorite Catriona MacColl, who has to be one of the best female screamers ever (consider the intro scream from THE GATES OF HELL), as Lucy, Paolo Malco as Norman, and Giovanni Frezza as little Bob (who it seems was dubbed by a woman, which ends up being just as awkward as it is creepy). These poor souls unknowingly mortgage their lives when they move into a quiet and isolated house in the woods next to a cemetery. The thought of a husband and wife moving into an isolated house with their creepy kid and into a deadly scenario may have THE SHINING written all over it, but the overall ordeal shares no similarities to that film.

There is a memorable and fairly iconic relation between the son, and a nineteenth century ghost girl that haunts the area, named May. The encounters between these two kids possess a childlike innocence that blurs the motive for why May is contacting Bob from beyond. The end result of their friendship is confusing, but so fascinating and endearing that it’s no wonder that former kid actors Giovanni Frezza and Silvia Collatina’s Facebook pages are constantly bombarded with friend requests by loving fans (myself included). We may not know them personally, we may not be actual friends, but we would still like to know how poor Bob is fairing after the traumatic events that transpired in the evil basement of that damned house. And who doesn’t have a desire to express admiration to May, the cool Gothic ghost girl, for saving Bob from a fate worse than death in a satisfying heartwarming ending that makes the viewer want to run off and buy Fulci’s other films (me 10 years ago) and ultimately become a hardcore lover of Italian Horror? And what great sports those two are for friending so many fans.

The plot of the film is setup by a confusing Lovecraftian backstory that involves a researcher, referred to as Mr. Peterson, driven insane by his findings in a New England mansion before slaughtering his mistress and hanging himself. Norman and his family move into the same house in Boston so he can continue Mr. Peterson’s research because this project, which is very vague in detail, is so important that it needs to be saved from going under. As Norman uncovers exactly what it was that drove his colleague to the deep end, he and his family end up under threat from something very evil and sadistic that resides in the basement and needs their dead corpses to survive. I say sadistic because the monster, known as Dr. Freudstein (Giovanni De Nava), doesn’t just kill for survival, but really seems to enjoy making its kill. For example, pleasure moans can be heard from Freudstein when it violently stabs the landlord Mrs. Gittleson (Dagmar Lassander) repeatedly with a fire place poker. Freudstein seems to savor the moment by inducing as much bloodletting as possible before finally ending it with a poke in the neck as blood spatters in a grand finale. All of this is the cruel and unnecessarily complex execution of Fulci’s entertaining gory death scenes that his horror films are primarily remembered for.

SIDE NOTE: Since this is a horror blog, naturally I’m going to be telling you about the gory stuff, but Fulci made great accomplishments with giallo (DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING [pretty gory too]), action (FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE), and comedy (I LADRI) films as well.

Nevertheless, I will in no way agree with anyone who says that gore is everything here. The music gives the film an exciting and Gothic feel, the child theme is a nice touch, and the whimpering child sounds that can be heard coming from the monster as it stalks its victims is strange and amusing. The monster makeup by Gianetto De Rossi is great and basically takes all the ingenuity of the zombie makeup seen in other Fulci films and focuses it all onto giving the basement monster a grotesque and macabre look that won’t make viewers regret waiting the greater part of the film’s runtime when it finally shows its face.

Also worth mentioning is the character of Ann the babysitter, played by Ania Pieroni, who is a highly suspicious and entertaining addition to the household, whose presence makes things both more interesting and more confusing. Pieroni, who I’d like to say, despite many jokes from film critics, has lovely dark eyebrows and is a knockout. I mean if you don’t agree with me at least check out this screen grab of her as the Mother of Tears in Dario Argento’s INFERNO, which I have a feeling is going to get reviewed on this blog very soon.

Ania Pieroni not in HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY

The script written by Dardano Sacchetti has its fair share of plot holes, but the macabre elements in the story are very satisfying. It should also be noted that Sacchetti was the script writer for THE BEYOND which along with HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is considered to be one of Fulci’s best, and should be proof that a script doesn’t necessarily have to be coherent to have an impact. However, “Narrative incoherence” really sticks its maggot ridden head out the most when after Mrs. Gittleson‘s demise, Ann is on all fours the next day cleaning up the blood trail left behind while Lucy opens the door to wish Ann a good morning and doesn’t even seem to notice or care that it looks like a massacre just took place. This maybe an instance of clumsy filmmaking, but let’s be optimistic and try to come up with a reasonable explanation… Maybe Lucy was so tired and groggy that morning that she just happened to not notice the blood, what with her medication she takes and all. As for Ann cleaning the blood, this might best be understood if one were to assume that she is unknowingly drawn to Dr. Freudstein, which makes sense if one were to recall when Norman caught her prying the boards off the basement door in the middle of the night. It could also be the films way of throwing suspicion on Ann so we are caught off guard when later she endures multiple slashes to the neck resulting in her head falling off and tumbling down the basement stairs while little Bob has to endure the traumatic visual.

Poor Bob… He and the Kid from Fulci’s other film THE GATES OF HELL, and maybe Joshua from TROLL 2, should form a support group for all children traumatized in Italian horror films. Anyone who has seen these films knows what I am talking about.

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY does suffer from occasionally being slow as well, but when we’re talking vintage Euro-horror, when is slowness not an issue? Being able to tolerate slowness is what separates those who’ll dig the Hell out of this and those who won’t. A very common defense to slowness is that the ambiance that is prevalent in these films makes them worthwhile to endure, and classic euro-horror, as many know, excels in ambiance.

I would also like to mention that I love Norman’s beard, Hell I love the bearded Fulci characters in general. There is something so dignified, classy, and intellectual to these handsome characters whose charming beards always seem to land them a gruesome demise. After spending time in Fulci’s world, one would eventually learn that it is not wise to have a beard. This is especially true in Fulci’s MANHATTEN BABY.

Even though it isn’t the season for the beard, I would like to closeout with a Hall of Fame Collage of the many bearded Fulci characters (+1 imposter), many of whom suffered crowd pleasing death scenes done with that touch that is undeniably Fulci.

Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

2011-06-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone else ever feel down when you follow a bunch of new blogs and none of them follow you back? I mean, sure, bloggers have a right to not follow back, but seriously, where’s the support? “A stat for a stat”, so to speak… But not to worry, I don’t mind. New followers should be people who are actually interested in reading your blog, and I’ll admit to being a little jealous of other blogs sometimes, especially ones that have followers I’d love to have, but I’m not so jealous that I’d do anything rash, or at least I hope no one thinks I would. I don’t want to end up like Alice, the main character to an insane slasher film known as ALICE SWEET ALICE, whose little sister turns up murdered after being showered with gifts and attention. Naturally, the suspicion is thrown on poor little Alice.

ALICE SWEET ALICE is a child themed murder mystery that feels influenced by the popular Giallo films of its era and features a masked killer, a creepy doll, bloody knives, and religious iconography. Despite nearly every scene being shot during the day, ALICE SWEET ALICE also contains a dark ambiance unique to horror films of the time that was prevalent in films like THE EXORCIST. I think what I’m trying to say is that this is a pretty good slice of the best that 70s horror/thrillers has to offer.

The film initially paints the main character 12 year old Alice (played by a then 19 year old Paula Sheppard, who is a much more convincing child character played by an adult than Peter Bark from BURIAL GROUND) as neglected and with good reason to be jealous of her younger sister Karen (Brooke Shields in her first ever role). After standing by with a “what about me expression” on her face while Karen receives a pretty crucifix necklace from the priest Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich), and a brand new white dress for “First Communion”, it really starts to feel like Alice is being left out, and her frustration and teasing towards her little sister almost feels understandable. Whether or not Alice went through her first communion in the same manner is unknown, but being that this is a pretty religious family, I imagine she did. So maybe she’s just a brat who doesn’t know when it’s other people’s turn for attention.

Worth mentioning is a seriously creepy scene which occurs early on that reflects a bitter relationship between the 2 sisters, a scene that showcases impressive directing from Sole. It seems that Alice has stolen Karen’s brand new doll which results in Karen following her to a warehouse where Alice plays a prank on her in a scene that caused me to scream louder than Karen did. This moment is so eerie that it made it at number 89 in the BRAVO’S 100 SCARIEST MOMENTS TV feature and is the film’s way of really causing Alice to rub us the wrong way.

After all the sibling rivalry and being introduced to a cat food eating neighbor/landlord (?!) with a dislike for Alice, a most shocking and deadly first communion is underway. During this COMMUNION of HOLY TERROR, everyone is *so* focused on the ceremony that no one notices a small feminine masked killer in a yellow rain coat strangle Karen at the end of the communion marching line backstage before stuffing her body in a box and setting it on fire!!! Pandemonium ensues when the fire is discovered, and the holy ceremony is disrupted as a family loses their precious child to a brutal killer. It’s unthinkable to imagine such a terrible thing happening in a church during an adorable little communion for the kids.

So, if the killer isn’t Alice, then who?

Herein lays the beauty to the killer in ALICE SWEET ALICE. When we see the short killer in a yellow raincoat and a translucent mask with a slight grin, the creep factor is turned up as we can’t help but feel that all logic points to the fact that it’s Alice under the mask. But a vicious murdering child is so unnatural and likely to only be so in nightmares, or a Cronenberg film known as THE BROOD.

Like an illusionist distracting the attention of the audience, Alfred Sole tricks us at the beginning into thinking it is Alice’s resentment for her sister that might be the motive for her murder, but the real reason for Karen’s murder is very subtly played out before our eyes without us even knowing it.

The highly unsettling prospect of an unsolved child murder and the drive to find an answer to it all, fares nicely at holding the viewer’s interest into watching the remaining portion of the movie that takes place after Karen’s death. Naturally, the film fills up a significant portion of time with detective work, and the evidence and suspicion continually piles on Alice.

I would just like to point out that the screaming between the adults in this film is highly entertaining. I love it when Alice’s Aunt and Mom get into shouting frenzies at each other, both in the church after Karen is murdered and in the hospital after Aunt Annie blatantly accuses Alice of attacking her when she manages to survive the killer stabbing her in the leg. Kudos to the hysterical screaming skills of Aunt Annie (Jane Lowry)….

Just to spice things up a bit, a lie detector tests indicates that Alice is totally convinced it is her dead sister Karen who attacked her Aunt, a likely thing for a delusional child to think after enduring everything so far and possibly catching glimpse of the child size killer.

Alice seems to have her own creepy theme music that sounds frequently when she is on screen, especially when her parents visit her in a children’s psych ward after finally being accused of the murder of her sister and attack on her Aunt. By the time Alice is institutionalized it’s obvious that her parents are the only ones who believe in her. Given the certain problems she is experiencing with growing up, all that’s happened, and not being able to go home, it becomes difficult to not feel really sorry for Alice since it’s apparent that she is just another victim who is suffering the most for the deeds of someone else.

The truth is revealed a good 30 minutes before the end in a vicious segment where we the viewers as well as Alice’s Father find out whom the killer is. Too bad Alice’s Father, the only one who knows the truth, meets a grim ending before the film plays on leading up to a grand bloody finale in the church. And NO, the killer is not the priest.

ALICE SWEET ALICE might be a little long, and I felt bored with the subplot that involved Alice’s divorced Mother and Father starting to connect again, and the obese cat food eating neighbor Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble) was disgusting and distasteful, with his wife-beater shirt, urine stained paints, and pedophilic intentions, but it was obviously the intention of the filmmakers to repulse and disgust with the character of Alphonso. Maybe it was also to supplement the feeling of it not being safe for the children in the film who not only have the threat of a killer, but have to worry about having a guy like Alphonso around too. Nonetheless, I still really adore this movie, and I can’t recommend it enough to fans of 70s horror and Italian Giallo films, or to anyone looking to have a good time with an underrated classic that has aged very well.

Mario Bava's Lisa and the Devil (1974)

2011-06-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

You’re on a vacation in Toledo, at a crowded town square with a large group of tourists you’ve just spent the last several hours with on an uncomfortable stuffy bus ride. The tour guide is exhibiting an old fresco of the devil, whose face seems peculiar and unforgettable, and looks like that one actor who used to play Kojak. Out of nowhere, an irresistible and soul warming melody catches your attention, and you can’t help but stray from the group and pursue its source. Your curiosity has led you to an antique store where a lovely music box is emanating a most attractive sound. Upon inquiry to the shop owner, you learn that the music box is not for sale but belongs to a customer standing before you, who to your concern, happens to carry the same face you beheld in the fresco. After leaving the shop, you now have a complete disoriented sense of direction amidst an endless winding labyrinth of cobblestoned alleyways, without any sign of the town square where you had the comfort and safety of being in a group. Strange folk you come across shun you, avoid you, and treat you like you’re invisible.

Now you are lost and all alone, but this isn’t by mistake, he has chosen you and you are in his world now, for he is your only guide. You might as well make the best of it and try to look forward to what’s in store….. Surely bizarre and exciting adventures must lie ahead….. I’d also feel flattered if I were you, since it’s likely he thought you the fairest and prettiest of the bunch.

What has just been narrated to you is my interpretation of the set up to a high-body-count Gothic thriller from Mario Bava called LISA AND THE DEVIL, a visual feast from a cinematographic master that is full of memorable sequences that uncontrollably pummel the viewer with some of the greatest “Oh my God!” moments, ever. Allow me to attempt to manifest in words why this film kicks much ass, without giving too much away.

The plot concerns a dreamy and fascinating encounter between the character of Lisa, played by Elke Sommer, and Leandro, better known as the Devil, played with much enthusiasm by Telly Savales, whose role makes for about 60% of the entertainment. By a Contessa’s orders, Leandro slaves as a butler in a mansion hauling around, fixing, and positioning mannequins of characters like puppets in a play while comically cursing tedious tradition, much to the viewer’s amusement. Caught in the middle of this nonsensical dark passion play is the blond haired Lisa, whose green school teacher outfit with matching green shoes, convincing screams, beauty, eloquence, and vulnerability make for a great lead who I enjoyed spending the whole movie with from beginning to end.

"Tradition she says.... More work I say!"-- Leandro/Telly Savales

After being lost in what feels like purgatory for a while, a little more depth is added to Lisa’s situation when night falls and an antique car rolls up carrying a few more characters, among them a chauffeur played by Gabrielle Tinti. In desperate need of help and company, Lisa hitches a ride only to break down a few minutes later in front of a Gothic villa where all too coincidentally they are welcomed by a butler (Savales), who happens to be the same man Lisa came across earlier in town, to her somewhat surprise. The prospect of a broken down vehicle in front of a mansion may sound cliché, but trust me in saying that you’ve never seen anything like this before.

For mysterious reasons, a handsome young man, Maximilian played by Alessio Orano (a role turned down by Anthony Perkins), appears out of the shadows and emotionally insists that Lisa and her party stay, against his mother’s wishes, the Contessa played by Alida Vali. Maximilian has a weird and eccentric behavior that is somewhat linked to a twisted mother complex and his reason for wanting Lisa to stay at the mansion sort of becomes both clearer and more mysterious as the film carries on. Mario Bava’s Norman Bates, superficially has a charming and warm personality that masks his immature stubbornness and determination to have everything his way, everything he wants, and everything the way it was in a long gone past.

Further adding to the allure of the film is the beautiful and superbly Gothic mansion, which naturally lends an added creepiness with its antique and authentic interior design, and serves as the main backdrop to several intriguing sequences. A particularly vintage element from the film is felt when Maximilian burns a picture of his past lover while some very moving, almost KARATE KID 2 moving, music makes for a feeling of such genuine melodrama that one can’t help but proclaim “they don’t make them like this anymore”.

A stand out scene worth mentioning, my favorite scene, is when after we have established a good sense of claustrophobia from the nighttime mansion setting, Lisa is staring at the music box she’s been drawn to and under a hypnotic spell is magically whisked away into a day lighted dream world, running in slow motion, amongst beautiful green hills, lovely music, and a Romanesque gazebo. The mystery is intensified as she comes across a supposed lover, Carlos (Espartaco Santoni), who addresses her as Elena. It’s as if she is now living the life of someone else, someone from the past whose relation to the present horror is all too mysterious but significant.

After the first character turns up dead from being murdered in “whodunit” fashion, there is an impromptu funeral procession that takes place in the mansion that is full of emotion and black humor that had me grinning and feeling sad as well. This was similar to what I felt during the impromptu memorial segment in Jess Franco’s A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD.

It was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the room with the creepy heads.

LATD contains a convoluted story with intriguing events that happen without rhyme or reason, but can still be a great viewing experience if you try not to think about it too hard. Let Bava guide you through this fascinating journey to a great ending that will leave you with a wide grin on your face and shouting BRAVISSIMO! The feel of the film is beautiful, classy, and dreamlike, but it also has a ruder side consisting of some very satisfying kill scenes and horror surprises that continually come back, up until the very end.

I got my copy of LISA AND THE DEVIL in the Mario Bava box set that came with an alternately cut and edited version with completely new scenes directed by producer Alfredo Leone, for distributive purposes and to cash in on THE EXORCIST, called THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM which I can’t bring myself to watch. I enjoyed and appreciated Mario Bava’s original film LISA AND THE DEVIL so much that I just couldn’t accept it in any other form. But…. Maybe I’ll watch it if anyone wants to convince me to do so.

Colour from the Dark (2008)

2011-05-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ivan Zuccon’s COLOUR FROM THE DARK is an adaptation to my favorite and in my opinion most frightening H.P. Lovecraft story THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE. Zuccon’s film runs its own unique ideas alongside Lovecraft’s story fairly smoothly, helping it to be more than just a mere retelling. The outcome of how the characters are affected by a life draining contamination on a farm is similar in both tales, but the means is much more demonic and supernatural in Zuccon’s, while that in Lovecraft’s is something alien and chronically hazardous that feels realistic and not all together unlike a nuclear fallout.

The most interesting original idea introduced in the film is the character of Alice (Marysia Kay), a mute childish woman, who despite being around 22 years old, is very much a portrait of a young and easily frightened child. She has a fear of the stairway in her home and when passing through it an anxiety generates in her that causes her to rush down the stairs afraid of something unseen and unknown. This easily reminds me of that same fear we felt as children all alone late at night in the hallways of our own homes, afraid of something not there, with an impulse to run through the hallway and back into bed under the secure blankets after a late night trip to the bathroom. Alice has a tendency to rely on her doll for security from the perceived hidden threats that lurk in the dark. Wandering around late at night, she covers one hand over her eyes while looking though her fingers and holding her doll out in front of her as if the doll is her protector, watching and letting her know if it is safe ahead. This introduction to Alice at the beginning of the film made me feel that I was in store for something pretty interesting with that surreal sensibility one can expect from Zuccon.

Similar to Lovecraft’s original story, the film is set on an isolated farm with a creepy ancient house, but in World War II Italy instead of the farmlands west of the mythical New England town of Arkham. The interior of the farmhouse strikingly resembles the exact place I had in my imagination when I first read the book. It is here that Pietro (Michael Segal) lives with his wife Lucia (Debbie Rochon) and her little sister Alice, who are all making best of the meager fruits that the farm provides. Not having to leave for the war due to a leg injury, Pietro works hard to maintain a stable life for his family with a large reliance on the farm’s water well… That sinister well that serves as a demonic source for the unnatural and macabre happenings that take place, and is sort of like a character in the film as well.

The 1940s feel is made believable through the costumes and mannerisms of the characters as well as the haunting classical music that contributes to the films beauty and creepiness. Also of note are the floating camera shots of the windy farmland that, along with the ethereal scenic beauty of the location, enhance the dreamlike feel of CFTD.

One day on the farm while Pietro is fishing around in the well to retrieve a fallen bucket, something formless and smoky is unleashed as if a seal had just popped open. This despite having a bad smell doesn’t seem to affect the taste of the water and since the wellbeing of the family and the crops relies heavily on that one and only source of water, they continue to still appreciate the well without much skepticism. It isn’t long before the farm produces giant crops, Pietro’s leg miraculously heals, and previously mute Alice starts speaking words. If only such miracles didn’t come with a price….

The story rolls on in a days-of-the-week progression and things really go to Hell as the week goes by. In just a day or two, the plants die and the giant crops rot away. The fact that something is really wrong becomes apparent when Lucia begins to act differently towards her husband and sister. She has a newfound veracious sexual appetite for her husband and she makes terrifying faces at Alice, one of which involves a great CG enhanced jump scare scene that spooks me every time (You’ll know what I’m talking about). When Lucia’s behavior causes her to be dangerous to herself and others, Pietro locks her up in the attic and later calls for the exorcist!!! It has to be said that Debbie Rochon just kicks ass in this movie because she really does the “Lovecraftian descent into madness” justice. The blackness in Lucia’s eyes when she is overtaken-by-madness is truly creepy and the duel between her and Father Mario (Matteo Tosi) is terrific with a few well done nods to THE EXORCIST.

CFTD is a dark, morbid, and serious film without a shred of comic relief or camp value, but that makes it feel more suitable for something based off of Lovecraft’s doomful writing style. There’s also an emotional feel in the later part of the movie that is not present in the original story. I also feel that Zuccon visually nailed the aftermath of the life draining entity that infects the farm. There’s no bad acting here either, Rochon shines, Kay is great, Segal charms with his Italian accent, and Tosi gets into his exorcist role.

"It gets inside you.... It sucks the life out"--Michael Segal/Pietro

In the DVD extras for the VANGUARD release, there is a segment about the haunted production of CFTD. According to Rochon, the film’s set was haunted by an egotistical poltergeist that would frequently ruin takes by manifesting itself in shots. Rochon states that they named the ghost Trevor, which could’ve possibly been a nickname for the ghost of Lovecraft.

Thank You Holly

2011-05-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

The always fascinating and impressive Holly's Horrorland has given me The Versatile Blogger award, and in order to accept it I must reveal 7 things about myself before passing this noble and prestigious award on to 15 other bloggers, who I'm guessing will have to continue to uphold the tradition if they want it. (In trying to trace the award back a little I've noticed that others are passing it on to only 7 other bloggers, so I'm not sure which is correct)

OK here it goes:

1) My girlfriend thinks I’m smexxxy ;)

2) Ever since 2008 or so, I’ve stubbornly refused to watch remakes, even the ones that are supposed to be good. But now that I hold an award as a versatile blogger, that cynicism must end. LET ME IN here I come! A remake of SUSPIRIA you say? Sure, I’ll check it out and I’ll probably like it.

3) I was bit by the blogging bug after participating in the Vicar of VHS hosted Paul Naschy blogathon as a guest author at the Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies blog. Anyone interested can check out that write up here => A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE . Thank you Vicar!

4) I am a phD student at the University of New Mexico

5) My writing name Giovanni Susina is a loose Italian translation of my real name

6) I also write for Italian Film review

7) I think my girlfriend is smexxxy too ;D

The 15 other bloggers I have chosen to pass the award to: (You don't have to accept it if you don't want it, I won't be offended)

1) Nigel Maskel of The Video Nasty Blog and founder of Italian Film Review (Thank you so much for your support and for letting me join your awesome staff of writers)

2) Cinemarchaeologist of The Dig (Thanks for the great comments)

3) and 4) The Vicar of VHS and The Duke of DVD of Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies (My initial inspiration)

5) Rich Flannagan of 0.50 Action Express

6) Rob Talbot of Mondo Euro

7) James of Behind the Couch

8) Geof of The Man Cave

9) William of Nightmare Castle

10) 42nd Street James of 42nd Street Cinema

11) Scary Larry of Morbidementia

12) Wednesday’s Child of In It for the Kills

13) B-Movie Geek

14) Ginger Nuts of Ginger Nuts of Horror

15) Jezri of Jezri's Nightmares

And in closing I would like to say that I love and appreciate every one of my followers.

“I love you…. I love you all”--Jennifer Connely/PHENOMENA

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)

2011-04-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have read of the elusive cult that targets and stalks vulnerable victims while driving them to madness and suicide. They have a preferred method of friending those who’ve come into their domain, gaining the trust of the unfortunate lonely soul who would likely not see the danger until it is too late. These sect members appear to live normal lives and are closely associated with each other in their own community, so that there’s no trouble at all once they’ve acquired a corpse for "God knows what". Once all is done, there is no memory of the unfortunate, no mourning, and no suspicion, as if the victim had never been born at all.

Now I fear my own sanity is beginning to grow unsteady… The illusions of painful memories that appear before my eyes as though no time has passed since those tragic events…. The scary faces that follow and stare at me on my nightly walks home from work. I worry that I will soon be wiped clean from existence, in memory and in name. What will become of my body after they’ve taken me?

It all started after tasting the bitter wine that was offered to me from a so called friend, but my grip on reality really started to falter after he had me view Francesco Barilli’s THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK, a masterpiece from the golden era of Italian horror in serious need of praise and discovery. Allow me to divulge a bit more:

The films main character Silvia Hacherman (Mimsy Farmer) lives alone in an archaic apartment complex and is the boss of a research and development facility. What awaits her is a spell of madness that results in resurfaced tormenting childhood memories, haunting visions of her dead mother in a black dress, and a newfound murderous instinct. A nice touch and an eerie hint of the dark mystery between Silvia and her deceased mother occurs early on when a populated cemetery she’s visiting becomes quiet and empty after viewing and laying flowers on her mother’s headstone.

The foreboding to Silvia’s delirium happens during a chat over whisky with some friends, among them her boyfriend Roberto (Maurizio Bonuglia) and a Professor named Andy (Jo Jenkins) who indulges on the mysterious occurrences of black magic that he claims haunts every corner of Africa. After talking about cults who murder and prey on unsuspecting victims by driving them mad with magic potions and evil spells, he breaks into a boisterous laughter claiming that he was just pulling their tails. Now I don’t know about you, but if I was one of these listeners I’d be mighty suspicious of the J&B Scotch Whisky I was served after hearing the good Professor’s creepy and convincing speech about black magic. It’s definitely not a good sign either that Silvia sleeps in until 3:30 in the afternoon the next day, oversleeping her shift at her high position job she’s dedicated to.

The feeling of not being able to trust anyone is prevalent, since the people in Silvia’s life are sort of strange and suspicious in subtle ways. A couple examples include, a tennis partner (Jenkins) seeming a little too attracted to a cut on her hand caused from a mysterious nail in her tennis racket, and her neighbor (Mario Scaccia) appearing to have a new supply of fresh meat for his cats when a certain character dies.

In addition, there are also a number of unexplained occurrences that serve to keep an eerie tension throughout the film. The most prevalent of these are the bizarre and distasteful package deliveries to her flat which most certainly suggest that someone is real keen on screwing with her head.

When she is haunted by images of the lady in black, the story reveals that Silvia had a troubled and all around screwed up relationship with her mother. These hauntings are likely due to repressed memories surfacing as a result of Silvia going mad from some maleficent outside influence hinted at by strange faces that repeatedly turn up stalking and spying on her for unthinkable reasons.

I always thought Mimsy Farmer was sort of mediocre in other roles I’ve seen her in, but her role in this film as Silvia, a victim being haunted by memories of an abusive childhood, is excellent and easily my favorite. Her character is mysterious and very interesting, and also manages to get the viewer’s concern since it’s obvious she’s in danger from something unexplained that’s a part of her everyday life.

This feeling that something is not quite right with just about everyone in Silvia’s life is validated when those close to her meet in the middle of the night with the strangers that have been following and eyeing her suspiciously. The outcome of this conspiracy did bring to my mind ROSEMARY’S BABY, but much more vague in purpose and far more gruesome and disturbing, and to put it more bluntly “my kind of ending”.

The film really picks up steam when Silvia is haunted by herself in the form of a bossy little girl that rings at her flat one night. The young girl’s refusal to leave is symbolic of Silvia’s desire and difficulty to forget her unhappy childhood, something which is likely to come to the forefront when losing one’s sanity.

As her troubled past increases its hold and influence on her, Silvia is drawn back to her childhood home where the man responsible for her past grief is awaiting her, forcing her to relive what she has been trying to forget. Silvia being pursued by an abusive man, who may or may not be real, kicking down a blocked door as she stands terrified against the wall is a brilliant analogy to domestic violence and strongly indicative of the malicious past that is pursuing her in the present. Silvia’s Childhood home is the beautiful albeit very old and ruined gigantic mansion that suggests a past best forgotten and left to rot, lest a spell of madness overtakes you.

TPOTLIB for me was like a nice meeting between ROSEMARY’S BABY and SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS and features one of the most surreal and artistic forms of suicide I’ve ever seen that’s truly a dark play on the words “to kill yourself”.

Like a collage of images crafted together to form an overall image, TPOTLIB is a collection of brilliant moments that, while not necessarily coherent when analyzed separately, come together to form an intriguing story. And in case you couldn’t tell from this write up, I really like this film. I feel it deserves its place alongside other surreal Italian horror greats like SUSPIRIA and LISA AND THE DEVIL.

Jean Rollin's Fascination (1979)

2011-04-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Some find the experience of tasting blood to be exciting, sexually arousing, and empowering. A condition known as “clinical vampirism” is an obsession for consuming blood due to a belief in its ability to grant life enhancing vitality. Given the awareness of this vampiric tendency in some, it’s not surprising that history is filled with unsolved murders of victims who appear to have been killed under conditions strongly suggestive of vampirism. Jean Rollin’s 1979 opus, Fascination, is an interesting and bewitching take on the idea of craving blood that is coupled with the director’s superior visual style and erotic nature.

Jean Rollin’s FASCINATION is an intriguing tale set in 1905 that begins with mesmerizing visuals that captivate and draw the viewer in, before the story unfolds. At the start, we are treated to the lovely sight of an antique phonograph set on a bridged pathway over a body of water where two women in white (Brigitte Lahaie and Franca Mai) are enjoying a ballroom style dance. Elsewhere on a different day in a bloody butcher house, high society women in fancy dress stand around and participate in the “latest fashion” of drinking ox blood as a therapy for anemia, which I felt to be an interesting take on vampirism, and also feels like a mockery of sorts for wine tasting clubs. The beautiful but grim sight of these ladies drinking blood from a wine glass standing in a pool of blood is a darkly poetic visual done in a way only Rollin could, and is an image that will stick with you forever.

Take care to not get blood on those expensive looking dresses

The unfortunate protagonist of the story, Marc (Jean-Marie Lemaire), is a well-dressed swindler fleeing from a group of bandits after double crossing them and making off with a bounty of gold. The pursuit leads him to take cover in the same chateau where the lovely maidens from before were enjoying a dance on the water bridge.

Here is where the bulk of the film takes place, a beautiful chateau amidst a picturesque setting of fog, water, and winter trees, with a long water bridge that serves as the only way in and the only way out. The doom themed music reverberating during Marc’s flight, as he draws ever closer to the mansion, definitely suggests that he is headed to a far more deadly destination. The situation Marc ultimately finds himself in at the chateau is a lot of fun and very interesting, and also proves the film to not just be excellent eye candy, but a great story as well.

After searching around the chateau’s very nicely decorated Gothic interior, he comes across 2 women in white, Eva and Elisabeth (Lahaie and Mai), who claim to be cleaning and preparing the chateau before the owners return from Paris. Being the man with the gun, he immediately takes over and locks the 2 ladies up, so he can count his gold and think of a plan for losing his enemies outside. It should be obvious that there is a lot more to Eva and Elisabeth than meets the eye, because they somehow manage to have fun with their current situation.

Outside the chateau the bandits bide their time choosing not to enter and wait until nightfall. It may seem odd that they don’t go in after him, but it’s best to go with the fact that they are just awaiting the right moment to strike.

After Marc locks Eva and Elisabeth up in one of the Chateau’s rooms, Elisabeth grabs a key hidden under a decorative fabric and shows it to Eva, and they laugh as if this is just a silly game. Without any worry or regard for their current situation, they begin to kiss and caress each other before the pistol wielding swindler walks in and witnesses the endearing sight and smiles while proclaiming “I see that I don’t frighten you anymore”. They admirably respond to him in a sarcastic manner as he annoyingly slams the door. Apparently these ladies aren’t going to let this guy ruin their fun, and the previous thought is continued as they embrace each other in a wonderful dim lighted love scene, made quite relaxing with a lovely piano theme.

After being distracted a bit, the story is back under way as Marc enjoying the sight and feel of his gold is startled to get a kiss on the neck from behind by Eva, whom he believed to be locked up. “I just wanted to kiss you she says” as it’s becoming apparent that these 2 captive maidens are starting to play some serious mind games with their captor. They ultimately take control of the situation with their cleverness and charm and shower the man with generosity by seducing him and allowing him the pleasure of having intercourse with Eva, who even marches outside afterwards and disposes of his enemies. This is by first fooling the bandits by offering them the gold bounty before offing them in style with a scythe while dressed as death. Why are these 2 being so generous to him? Is it to get the gold, or is it something far more sinister?

The film has been great so far, but the best is yet to come.

It turns out there is a reason they are keeping him there. Apparently the staff won’t be coming back for another two days and another mysterious company is expected at nightfall. After recalling the women in the slaughter house at the beginning of the film, I can’t help think that Marc may not be so lucky after all.

When night falls, a colorful set of visitors in visually appealing Gothic attire arrive, which is suspiciously suggestive of vampire mythology. Are they really vampires or just a strange cult of blood drinkers who may want to try something a little different than ox blood? The film never makes it clear, but I figure that was the intention.

The arrival of these classy bizarre guests as they cross the Chateau’s water bridge is the turning point of the film and things begin to get real interesting since Marc is the only male amongst this female gathering. Now that it’s one man and seven flirtatious young ladies apparently looking to have a good time, he decides to have fun and make the best of his current situation. I mean how often does this sort of thing happen? And even though he is suspicious of the strange scenario, he’s not fully convinced that he’s in any real danger at all. How events unfold from here, I’ll leave for you to check out.

FASCINATION is a great film from Jean Rollin who’s never disappointed me as far as the horror films are concerned. I found this film to be a goldmine for great screen grabs, and personally believe that numerous frames in FASCINATION are great cinematographic works of art that should be displayed in some art museum. While it may not be groundbreaking, the story of Marc’s strange escapades in a human mouse trap (figuratively speaking) is very entertaining. Sexy, funny, beautiful, atmospheric, brimming with mystery, and sort of creepy, Rollin’s FASCINATION really has it all, and I honestly can’t think of much reason to dislike it. RIP and thank you Mr. Rollin.

"At midnight, You'll see what seven women can do to a lone man!"--Elisabeth/Franca Mai

Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (1998)

2011-03-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

One can only dream of having the privilege to meet and converse face to face with significant figures in history, to live the same events as our ancestors, or to reach out through time and take possession of the bodies of descendants in the future and never have to succumb to death. If such a book contained the key to making this possible, it would likely be best kept forbidden and locked away forever, lest we find ourselves in danger from our own ancestors clawing away at our souls, trying to take possession of our lives. If you, like the main character in tonight’s film review, often find yourself dreaming that you are someone else in an entirely different time period, then it’s possible you may have been cursed from someone high above you in your own family tree that wants your life very much.

By the way, all of this talk about taking the lives of descendants is the theme to H.P. Lovecraft’s THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, which is the basis for Raymond Saint-Jean’s 56-minute long, made for TV film, OUT OF MIND: THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT. As the title suggests, the film also contains familiar scenarios from a few other Lovecraft tales that fans will likely enjoy noticing. However, the film’s main highlight is that it actually includes a very convincing H.P. Lovecraft played with stellar acting by Christopher Heyerdahl, who teaches us how CTHULHU is really pronounced. A pronunciation I’m unable to duplicate myself despite multiple attempts.

"Man's relation to man does not captivate my fancy, it is man's relation to the cosmos-to the unknown-which alone arouses in me the spark of creative imagination"--H.P. Lovecraft

The story follows Randolph Carter (Art Kitching), a struggling metal sculptor who inherits an old book from his uncle, George Angell (Art Kitching also), on his twenty-seventh birthday that turns out to be none other than the Necronomicon.

After leafing through the book a bit and speaking aloud some of its foreign phonetics, Carter begins having troubling nightmares of encounters with a man named Harley Warren, a researcher driven mad by “fundamental research” of the Necronomicon. In the dream state, Carter is his Uncle from the past and has to witness and endure unspeakable experiments from Warren, who is sort of like the frightening Lovecraftian madman from the past whose malicious spirit is still as threatening now as it was then, as if no time had elapsed.

The actor that plays Harley Warren and Carter’s only friend Blake (Peter Farbridge) is great as both a dungeons and dragons novelty store clerk and the maniac in Carter’s dreams. In the dream world, Farbridge gives off a rather convincing 1920’s persona, which is an impressive contrast to the nerdy cynical store clerk he plays in the waking world.

Blake and Randolph Carter in the waking world.

Harley Warren and George Angell as they are known in the dream world.

"Can flesh be sculpted?"--Peter Farbridge/Harley Warren

Later at the store Blake works at, Carter inquires on the identity of a gentleman in a photo that was nestled in the pages of the book he inherited. The person in the photo happens to be Lovecraft, and it turns out that the store is having a sale on Lovecraft T-shirts, but Blake gives him one for free because apparently they’re not selling well. Blake also lends Carter a book of some of Lovecraft’s best writing, so he can better familiarize himself with the author. A scene with Carter reading the back cover to this book, in a voiceover, is a great capsule bio to H.P. Lovecraft and his writing.

In order to learn more about his dreams, the Necronomicon, and their connection to Lovecraft, Carter consults a professor addressed in a letter that came with his inheritance named Henry Armitage (Michael Sinelnikoff), after the heroic protagonist from THE DUNWICH HORROR. With hopes of getting answers, Carter leaves the book with Armitage, whose response to seeing the Necronomicon is dead on. This ends up backfiring as Carter arrives the next day to find the Professor having his brain being eaten on by a hairy squid-like creature. One of the film’s few gory moments…

Hairy brain eating squid from Outer Space

After being unable to drive himself to torch the Necronomicon, Carter continues to dream of past events under the identity of his Uncle and eventually walks the forest of dreams while conversing with H.P. Lovecraft himself.

A fanboy's dream

The overall explanation for what is happening in the story is that Carter’s fiendish ancestor utilized the Necronomicon in the past as a key to possess his descendent through dreams and ultimately be reincarnated.

As dream, reality, and nightmare become less distinct while the film plays on, an interesting idea is emphasized that reality is merely the secondary existence while that of the dream world is in fact the more significant.

Though the film doesn’t have the most climatic ending, the main idea is still gotten across during the final story event. A remarkable scene at the end, before the film closes, includes the Lovecraft character dreaming and wandering the Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island, and while viewing his own grave, a voiceover by Heyerdahl describes the afterlife as nothing more than oblivion. Much of the spoken dialogue in this film from Heyerdahl is actually taken from letters and essays penned by Lovecraft himself.

Winner of an H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Award, OUT OF MIND is an unusual but creative Canadian film that is a treat for Lovecraft fans, and is also recommended as an introduction to those not yet familiar with the man, since it’ll likely incite curiosity.

Jess Franco's A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1971)

2011-03-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

To have never met or even known one’s own family is a sad thing indeed, but to finally be reunited with your relatives only to discover that you’d have been far better off never knowing them is truly the saddest thing of all. A young ladies first time discovery of her bizarre and outlandish relatives in a homecoming from Hell is the subject of tonight’s film review for a Belgian, Italian, and French financed film shot in Portugal that was written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco (wait don’t leave!), known as A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD.

The film follows Christina (Christina von Blanc) travelling home from a boarding school in London, in order to visit her relatives at the Castle Monteserate and to attend the reading of her father’s Will. Odd thing is she has never known her father or even met her relatives, and according to an Innkeeper and the village locals, the castle she is headed for is apparently abandoned. But nonetheless, Christina continually insists and believes that her whole family lives there.

During the intro credits, the film illustrates Christina’s Journey to the village with travelling shots of very normal and mundane location visuals that clash with the dissonant and creepy music that is being heard. This for me suggests that danger can be nearby at even the most unexpected instances, and reminds us that we live with the constant risk of heading into treacherous perils without even knowing it. This is definitely the case for Christina, who is most unsuspecting of the threat that awaits her back home… A threat in the form of a seductive lady in black, guiding her to the ultimate destination in life….

After a restless night at the village Inn, Christina is fetched by the castle’s strange and bizarre servant Basillio (Jess Franco in an endearing and entertaining role as the suspicious idiot servant), who accompanies her in an awkward car ride to the castle. On the drive to Monteserate, Christina poetically describes her feelings in a voiceover that conveys gloomy and depressing dark imagery, which again clashes with the green valleys and lush mountain roads seen from the car windows. She speaks of a sad world of shadows and vultures, which in a way brings to mind that same unseen and unsuspecting doom that the film draws us ever closer to as it carries on.

Upon arrival to her destination, she comes across her uncle Howard (Howard Vernon) greeting her while playing a cheerful waltz on the piano. She kisses her uncle on the cheek and is alarmed at how cold he feels, before he casually alerts her that Herminia, her step mother, wishes to see her at her death bed. Christina receives this news as a shock and cannot believe her uncle’s carefree attitude and disrespectful way of notifying her of the dreadful news. This was literally like “oh by the way your step mother wants to see you…she’s dying”. Again there is that clash of doom and normalcy, but this time with an added portrayal of happiness which really starts to come off as dark comedy, as Uncle Howard humors her distraught response by switching gears and sarcastically playing a funeral march on the piano.

Christina is also surprised to notice a total stranger lounging about the castle that her uncle introduces as Carmenze (Britt Nichols), and stubbornly refuses to describe her as anything else but a member of the family. For me, Carmenze can best be described as a sexy diva with the personality of an intoxicated teenager. It is also made quite obvious that Carmenze is Howard’s mistress.

While walking through a study room on the way to meet with Herminia, Christina walks right passed a mysterious lady in black (Anne Libert) at a desk scribbling ruin symbols in blood. This is a very surreal moment, since you would think Christina would notice or at least acknowledge this dark beauty, but we are instead left wondering who that person or entity is. My take is that this strange woman is a representation of death waiting to take away the ailing Herminia, and Christina not noticing this woman is a portrayal of her ignorance to her own safety and her inability to recognize that death is very much present in this castle. Sadly, Herminia does pass away before attempting to whisper something in Christina’s ear, while her suspicious Aunt Abigail (Rosa Palomar) looks on. It’s obvious by now that something’s definitely wrong with the current state of affairs in Monteserate.

The bizarre disrespect towards death is further personified at Herminia’s memorial service, which was quickly thrown together by the current inhabitants of the castle. The following scene is a darkly humorous and appalling take on the funeral memorial service by Jess Franco, and is a memorable standout moment in the film. You’ll feel sadness at the sight of Herminia’s corpse on display in a seated upright position and the sounds of ritualistic funeral chanting to tragic sounding organ music. You’ll also feel appalled after seeing Charmenze polishing her toenails and Uncle Howard smoking as he plays the organ. You’ll also giggle at the sight of Basillio hardly being able to stay awake during the ceremony. The mixture of emotions felt during this segment should be a testimony to the brilliance that Jess Franco can sometimes be capable of.

On the next day, the gloominess that the film has been radiating so far is weakened for a moment while Christina explores the castle grounds in a scene that contradicts the overall mood of the film thus far. As Christina wanders amidst lush peaceful forested grounds, a waterfall, and a pond full of lily pads, we are treated to an enchanting musical piece by Bruno Nicholai (Yes, I’m aware that I’ve previously used the word “enchanting” to describe music by Nicholai). This is a lovely scene that provides a welcome reprieve from all of the death we have been encountering thus far. It’s time to just relax and enjoy nature, and it seems Christina feels the same way because she next decides to go for a skinny dip in the pond. Oh goody….

Unfortunately Christina cannot enjoy herself in peace, because a couple of gleeful old men show up and start to peer around a tree in order to catch a few peeps. One of these individuals happens to be the lawyer, who is to later read her Father’s living will, (Antonio de Cabo) and the other is a perverted doctor. Luckily, a young man comes by and alarms the dirty old men and scares them off.

Later back at the castle, Christina endures more bizarre and random behavior from her family as her Uncle scares away the young man she just met. She also walks in on a nude Charmenze enjoying the taste of blood from an open wound on a mysterious blind woman (Linda Hastreiter) that wanders the castle, and catches sight of Basillio clutching her recently deceased stepmom’s severed hand! She is also drawn to the pond In the middle of the night, from ghostly calls from her dead father, as the enigmatic lady in black follows close behind.

More disrespect for the dead ensues, when the lawyer finally comes to read the will of Christina’s father, in another memorable sequence from Franco. The lawyer lazily opts for a more brief summary of the will, suggesting that a thorough and complete reading to be pointless and mundane. This time Basillio does fall asleep, and his snores are heard during the execution of the will, which basically states that Christina inherits everything.

Despite all of the maddening occurrences Christina has witnessed from these so called relatives of hers, she still wishes that they all stay. She wants nothing to change, so they can all live together as a happy family. The craziness and absurdity of Christina’s suggestion of a happy family is further illustrated as a drunk Charmenze rolls around on the floor, and in a playful manner starts to crawl towards and sexually pursue a childishly frightened Basillio, in yet another golden scene from Franco’s film. I can’t help feeling relieved at Christina’s decision, because this is one interesting “happy family” that I enjoy spending time with.

This film is akin to drinking, because it starts to feel more and more inebriated as it goes on. Christina awakens the next day to find a phallus erected on the floor and is slowly drawn to it, but then smacks it aside resulting in it shattering into pieces. The mysterious blind woman sitting nearby against the wall proclaims “Poor Soul, how could you shatter the Great Phallus? We are now cursed, all of us!”… I kid you not!!

It becomes difficult to take the movie seriously after the occurrence with the phallus, but that’s OK, because you weren’t supposed to be taking it seriously anyway. This film is an interesting portrayal of the journey into the afterlife, and is supplemented with delirious fits of dark humor. Christina is ultimately warned by the ghost of her father (Paul Műller) all too late, as the queen of darkness guides her to the ultimate destination that she has been heading for all along. You may think that was a plot spoiler, but it really isn’t, because this film is more a depiction of Christina’s voyage to the land beyond, through the guidance of a beautiful portrayal of death in the flesh. I feel that what matters more with this film is what is felt and experienced by the viewer during the course of events that lead to Christina’s demise, and not whether or not she gets out alive.

It should be noted that Christina’s virginity is never addressed nor does it play any role in the film. I’m thinking VIRGIN in the title was just to give the film a perversely alluring title. Also, even though it’s classified as a zombie film from numerous internet sources, I believe that it really shouldn’t be. You’ll notice that the living dead in the film aren’t the zombie kind, but are still quite literally the living dead, which in this film can be described as cold skinned characters without appetites that seem to have their sex drives and senses of humor still intact, and should be dead but still continue to live on in the castle. However, I don’t think the title is entirely misleading either, since it does sound erotic and the film most certainly has a number of darkly erotic moments.

Also, Jess Franco is great as Basillio. I honestly couldn’t refrain from giggling every time he’s on camera, and this is not because I am laughing at him, but because Jess Franco is making me laugh with his “over the top” performance.

In closing, I would like to say that I do love a good Jess Franco film… Several years ago I wouldn’t have believed that I’d be saying such a thing, since it was Franco’s lesser films that I first came across, such as OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES and 99 WOMEN, which weren’t that bad, but didn’t leave me with much enthusiasm to pursue more. I’m glad I eventually found better from the man, and while there are probably a number of great places to start with, I personally believe that AVATLD is a good example of Franco at his best, and I do recommend it to curious first timers and Franco fans that haven’t seen it yet.

"We shall return to the River Styx forever, wandering the swamp without ever reaching its end."--Howard Vernon

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972), AKA Blood Feast

2011-02-26T21:31:00.000-08:00

After a long hard day, a brief trip to a different time period in a faraway place is usually what it takes to provide the right amount of escapism I crave in order to feel restored and at peace again. I’m sure that you sometimes feel the same way, and I think you’ll find Emilio Miraglia’s “THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES” to be a source of much needed respite. The cinematography in the film ably makes use of exotic locations in a 1970’s time period that, in a way, provides a pleasant getaway for you to enjoy from the comfort and safety of your couch. So if you’re feeling a bit burned out and in need of a vacation, come with me to a castle and town in Europe, where you can relax to the seductive visuals of a different time and place, and enjoy the company of lovely Euro-beauties (like Barbara Bouchet and Marina Malfatti) as well as a ghostly killer just to make things more interesting and to your liking.

At the beginning, the film instantly draws the viewer in with a very exotic and almost tourist like European setting, where Kitty and Evelyn Wildenbrűk, 2 sisters of about 9 years of age, are enjoying playtime in a very luxurious courtyard with a marvelous castle looming in the background. The peace and serenity the ambiance this location provides is disrupted as Evelyn snatches Kitty’s precious doll from her and dashes through the castle grounds causing Kitty to chase after Evelyn, with great concern for the safety and integrity of her doll. The chase ultimately leads into the castle where Grandfather Tobias Wildenbrűk (played by Rudolf Schűndler, the witch expert from SUSPIRIA!) is disrupted from his morning paper because of all the bratty shouting. Just then, Evelyn becomes possessed from a gory painting nearby and starts chanting “I’m the red queen, and Kitty’s the black queen” and then completely loses it, grabs a knife and begins to viciously stab Kitty’s doll repeatedly before ripping its head off in a fit of maniacal laughter (an impressive and amusing performance from the child actor).

You see, all this sibling rivalry is analogous to the legend that surrounds the murders that take place in the film. After calming the children down, Grandfather Tobias gives an account of the legend behind the painting and its connection to the Wildenbrűk family curse.

Hmmm….I must be subconsciously attracted to stories about family curses, because I’ve just realized that this is the third film I’ve written about that involves a family curse (see AN ANGEL FOR SATAN and THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE). Not that I mind, because family curses are a lot of fun and are a mainstay for classic Gothic horror, and I can’t help thinking they will probably pop up in future reviews as well ;-). Anyways, back to the Wildenbrűk family curse….

The painting that sent little Evelyn into a murderous frenzy is a disturbing image of the so called “black queen” stabbing the dark haired “red queen” in the neck. Both characters in the painting could easily be viewed as older versions of the 2 quarreling girls at present. The curse is explained in a rather quick and confusing manner that caused me to have to rewind it a few times, so allow me to explain it to you more clearly….

The story behind the scene in the painting is that the 2 queens were sisters who lived in that same castle centuries ago and have always hated each other since childhood. After she was fed up from her sister’s pranks, the black queen murdered the red queen while she was sleeping, by stabbing her seven times. The legend goes that a year after her death, the red queen arose from the grave and murdered 6 innocent victims before killing the black queen. After killing 7 times, the red queen finally has her vengeance and can return to her grave to rest in peace. However, since this is a curse, the same thing has been known to occur every 100 years and always involves 2 sisters from the family bloodline, and wouldn’t you know it, the next curse deadline is only 14 years away.

After a great montage, set to an enchanting score by composer Bruno Nicolai, of Kitty falling victim to several pranks from Evelyn, the film flashes forward 14 years to the modern day of 1972. Old man Tobias Wildenbrűk still inhabits the castle and is being cared for by a third daughter Franziska (played by the irresistible Marina Malfatti), who was unaccounted for in the film’s prelude. Nowadays he rarely hears from his other 2 daughters, since Evelyn supposedly lives in America and Kitty (The insanely awesome Barbara Bouchet) is busy as a fashion photographer living in the city.

One restless night while lying in bed, Tobias receives an alarming visit from a female intruder in a red cape clutching a dagger in a most threatening manner. He calls out to Franziska for help, but suffers a heart attack in front of the menacing intruder.

The death of Tobias results in the family coming back together to collect their inheritance, only strange thing is Evelyn doesn’t seem to show up for the funeral. Well the story behind that is explained relatively early in a flashback sequence of Kitty and Evelyn going at it in a “cat fight”. Even though these 2 are fully grown now, they still fight like little children. Kitty ultimately delivers a killer right back slap to poor Evelyn and she hits her head on a stone monument, and falls into the castle moat. Evelyn is now floating unconscious and bleeding profusely, as Kitty immediately realizes she just seriously wounded her sister. Rather than call for an ambulance, Kitty, Franziska, and her husband Herbert (Nino Korda) opt to hide Evelyn’s corpse in the castle crypt. Things could get rather sticky for Kitty and Franziska if the police decide to investigate Evelyn not showing up to her father’s funeral, or to the reading of the will in order to collect her due inheritance.

At this point, there are probably several questions scratching at the viewer’s mind such as will Evelyn really arise from the grave as the killer red queen?, who was the red caped knife wielding diva that scared the bejesus out of poor Tobias Wildenbrűk?, and why is Barbara Bouchet so damn foxy? Well sit back and pour you another glass of wine, because we are only 13 minutes into the movie and there’s a lot more to come before any of those questions are answered.

So, now we have all the conventions of a great Gothic horror tale, but the atmosphere of the film seems to switch at this point as we transition into what feels like a different movie. The vibe completely changes to more of a giallo film (which is way cool with me), as we follow Kitty at work snapping photos of supermodels at the Springe fashion organization. It is here that several new characters are introduced to the story, who basically serve as murder victims for the ghoulish red queen, or are suspects in a possible red queen hoax. Also, the prospect of a murder mystery involving characters in a fashion designer clique, reminded me a lot of Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (which is a good thing, I might add).

When everyone, minus Evelyn, gathers to hear the Will Executor read aloud Grandfather Tobias Wildenbrűk’s living testament, they find out that the inheritance is not to be collected until the end of the year. It seems Tobias knew he would die the year of the family curse, and felt it best that the inheritance not be collected until all that “killer queen” hoopla be good and over with.

Thrown into the pot of Red Herrings is Evelyn’s previous lover, Peter, who is wise to it all (Fabrizio Moresco from DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT). He threatens to go to the police about Evelyn’s accidental death, but is a drug addict and is really only interested in harassing Kitty for money. His presence, more or less, adds to the story that trashy flavor we know and love from this type of film.

Another main character that is introduced later in the story is Martin Hoffmann (Ugo Pagliai), the new general manager of Springe, who took over after the former manager Hans Meyer (Bruno Bertocci) was murdered by the red queen while out shopping for a prostitute, in the interest of having a threesome with his mistress Lulu (Sybil Danning).

Not sure why former manager Hans was so unsatisfied with Lulu, a hot supermodel at his own industry, that he has to go out with her and a fetch a prostitute. But I guess some men are never satisfied….

Taking over as general manager of Springe has placed a good deal of suspicion on Martin from police inspector Toller (Marino Masé). Even though he is married, Martin gets sexually involved with Lulu as well…. Geez, took the old manager’s job and his girl, I see why the inspector suspects him so much.

Now, I’m beginning to like this Martin guy more and more, because he even tries to seduce Kitty as well, thus inducing jealousy from Lulu, and we learn that he used to be involved with Rosemary (Pia Giancaro), an assistant at Springe. Did I mention that his wife is in an insane asylum to?

Out sleeping with most of the hot characters in the film while his wife has been institutionalized… What a piece of work this guy is! But seriously, if Martin dressed like the red queen and was the killer, we wouldn’t have much of a murder mystery now would we?

To make things juicier, Martin’s wife Elisabeth explains to him during a conjugal visit that Evelyn visits her at night and that they run free in the forest that surrounds the institution, and that Evelyn promises to eventually take her away forever. Watching Elisabeth explain this to Martin in a delirious state of mind is very entertaining and causes one to ponder if her account of Evelyn is true or not, given her current mental state. Well, later that night the red queen does come for Elisabeth and helps her to escape the asylum forever. As Elisabeth is climbing the gate to freedom, the red queen cuts the ladder resulting in much blood flow as Elisabeth’s head is impaled by the deadly sharp ornaments that line the top of the gate. A stand out gory moment in the film…

During all of this, the supposed Red Queen makes her rounds violently knocking off other characters that seem to know a thing or two about what’s going on. Knowing that she must be the seventh victim, Kitty really starts to fear for her life as the body count increases and gets ever closer to seven.

Much to Kitty’s surprise, the artist sketches of the murderer resembles her supposedly deceased sister Evelyn, and when the anxiety becomes too much for her nerves, Kitty ventures forth into the bat filled castle crypt to make sure Evelyn’s corpse is still where it should be.

The big question is finally addressed during the film’s action packed watery climax: Is it really Evelyn committing the murders, or is something else going on?

Though it’s only 98 minutes long, TRQK7T feels epic, and after viewing it for the first time, I felt overwhelmed by how much was going on. A lot happens during the film’s run time and it wouldn’t be uncommon for viewers to be a bit confused when all is said and done. I did however enjoy analyzing it a lot more during a second viewing, as the high density of story events does give it a good deal of re-watch value.

Yes, I have the toy and I adore it...

I also can’t help thinking that I might be being a bit too thorough with the films plot, because what really outshines here is the murders by the red queen, the great music from Bruno Nicolai, the attractive female cast, the vintage 70’s designer fashions, and the exotic European settings. The film combines the giallo film style and Gothic horror tale with panache, and if you enjoy those two things, then TRQK7T is likely to be a treat.

One standout murder sequence that scores the films some major points involves the red queen driving a car and dragging a victim, stuck in the car door, along the road. This sequence brought to mind another very similar moment from one of my favorite films, Dario Argento’s legendary masterpiece DEEP RED, but TRQK7T predates that film by a good three years….

House of Black Wings (2010)

2011-02-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone and welcome back! I just want to start out this time by expressing my appreciation to everyone who has checked out my blog “At the Mansion of Madness”. It has been a blast so far and I look forward to posting many more reviews for your reading pleasure. “Thank you” to everyone who have taken the time to visit and to all who have followed me on my blog and on Twitter.

Today I write to you about a tale of friendship, ghostly possession, and cosmic horror, from a movie written, directed, and produced by David Schmidt of “Sword & Cloak Productions”. HOUSE OF BLACK WINGS is a film that I personally believe to be quite an achievement that really goes a long way given the modest resources available to the filmmakers. One of this film’s major strengths is the development that occurs between two interesting and unique lead characters. These being ex rock star Kate Stone, played very convincingly by Leah Myette, and her friend Robyn Huck, a very cute and likable gothic artsy type, portrayed by Katherine Herrera. Needless to say, I developed an attachment to both of these lovely ladies and I’m sure others have/will as well.

These two happen to be old college roommates with a strong connection based on a long term friendship they’ve had since before Kate’s brief stint of fame as a musician. An unfortunate incident has resulted in a career downfall that has left Kate completely bitter about her rock star past. She now wants nothing more than to forget everything and start anew with the support and company of her good friend Robyn. With her music career over and nowhere else to turn to, Kate arrives to stay at the Blackwood apartment complex, owned and maintained by Robyn who inherited the place from her father. While trying to rebuild her life, Kate learns that past demons aren’t so easily forgotten, and to make matters worse, something else is impeding her recovery, something demonic with black wings that seems to come from nightmares that exist between time and space….

Upon arrival to this ancient and cool looking apartment building, Kate finds an abundance of warm hospitality from her friend Robyn who immediately makes her feel at home. Since Kate has hit rock bottom in her life, Robyn lets her stay at Blackwood free of charge in order to help her get back on her feet. It seems that Robyn could also use the extra help, since she would otherwise have to maintain this mansion all by herself. Robyn also seems very lonely as an artist that paints and designs gloomy morbid doll houses (how cool is that?), so the pleasant company from her dear friend is another plus.

Kate Stone Robyn Huck

The main premise is that both girls are really just trying to make best with what they have, as Kate tries to put her life back together and Robyn struggles to maintain the old decaying building with most of the tenants leaving and being behind on rent. What it is specifically that happened to result in Kate’s downfall is a tragedy that is explained remarkably well as the story unfolds. The movie really is just as emotional as it is maddening and although it may seem a bit slow to some, patience and attention are likely to pay off.

During her stay at the Blackwood apartments, Kate is frequently disturbed by nightmares, the mysterious sound of flapping wings, ghostly whispering in the voice box, slippery things in the dark, and the scuttling of what sounds like RATS IN THE WALLS that did bring to my mind the HP LOVECRAFT tale of the same name.

Other characters staying at the apartment complex are an unstable and suspicious writer who can usually be heard banging away at a typewriter in his room, and a young man with a lot in common with Kate, who could have made a potential love interest if not for his mysterious demise/disappearance.

The scares in this movie are more on the suggestive and psychological side, with a few gory scenes, as well as several creepy coincidences, such as Kate discovering old decayed sheet music in the house that contains the same music she hears in her nightmares. Both characters eventually realize that they are seriously threatened from something ancient that originates from the house itself, which in a way possesses them and attempts to manifest itself through their artwork.

They ultimately find themselves trapped in the house in fear for their lives (in an interdimensional sort of way). Do they escape, or do they end up in THE BEYOND?!! Check it out and find out for yourselves.

After spending the entire movie with Kate and Robyn, they will start to feel like close friends. Even viewers who happen to not buy into the horror elements of the story will likely find themselves enjoying getting to know and spending time with these two, and will really start to care a good deal about their safety when the demonic threat permeating the house starts to become more intense.

HOUSE OF BLACK WINGS is a rather atypical haunted house tale with a good measure of drama and symbolism that elevates it beyond its low budget look and gives viewers good reason to take it seriously. If the horror elements were stripped from the film it would probably still be worth watching since the story involving the lives of the characters is very intriguing. Of course eliminating the horror would be no fun and unnecessary, because it also excels at being a horror film as well. The simple low budget FXs, creepy specters that haunt the house, and the nightmares that plague the characters causes the film to be a lot of fun and takes the edge off some of the more moody parts. The directing from David Schmidt is great and far from amateur, and I hope to enjoy many more offerings from the man in the future. At present his other writing and directing credits include SWORD OF HEARTS, GRAVE INVITATIONS, and THE LOVECRAFT SYNDROME. Information on these titles is available at the aforementioned sword and cloak productions website.

Both actresses contribute significantly to the movie as well: Leah Myette delivers her lines with style and conviction, and basically does a lot acting wise, such as looking genuinely scared, crying on cue, and getting destructively pissed off. Katherine Herrera on the other hand is just too cool as the unique expressive type, with a number of interesting HOT TOPIC LIKE outfits that I would guess are from her own wardrobe. I tried to search the internet to see what other movies she may have been in, but no luck. HOUSE OF BLACK WINGS unfortunately seems to be Herrera’s only acting credit on the IMBD at this time. L

Guitar Hero Kate!

There is definitely something unique in the feel of the film's soundtrack as well, which includes very moving balled type alternative/rock music that supplements the emotional parts quite nicely. There is one particular song that lends to a great music video like segment at the end of the movie that would likely induce a standing ovation from a theatre audience, while the film transitions to its closing credits. HOUSE OF BLACK WINGS really offers something enjoyable and significant to those fortunate enough to stumble upon it.

"Can't you see? It's this place...It's feeding us dreams!"--Leah Myette/Kate Stone

The Devil's Nightmare (1971), Starring Erika Blanc

2011-02-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

It is believed that Succubi repeatedly visit men in their dreams and upon paralyzing them, engage in nocturnal intercourse whilst draining their life and vitality until they wake up dead. I am writing to you all today to relate my encounter with a Succubus during one of my somnambulant journeys. It’s a miracle that I survived the horrific encounter with that unwholesome she devil to write to you these words today. Of course, I am talking about my encounter with the fiery redheaded, blazing hot demon from Jean Brismée’s “DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE”.

In this film, Erika Blanc stars as a homicidal Succubus prowling a twelfth century castle luring the films various characters to their dooms. The brooding feminine threat in the movie is personified with a theme song consisting of moody haunting female vocals that the Succubus herself would surely approve of.

Filmed in Sepia with WWII stock footage interspersed between scenes, the start of this nightmare is a brilliant segment set in 1945 Berlin during one of the bloodiest battles in human history. While the battle is raging outside, a maid/midwife is nursing the Baroness, who is in labor. 2 uniformed men are nearby; one of these men is the Baron von Rhoneberg, looking fairly agitated, and the other is his servant Hans. The Baroness eventually passes away while giving birth, and even after the Baron realizes his wife has just died, he still seems to be deeply troubled by something else (and it’s not the fall off the Third Reich). When he learns that the baby is not a boy, he sends everyone away in order to be alone with his newborn daughter. Afterwards, he says a prayer, takes out a knife, and commits a dastardly deed…. What on Earth could compel a man to do such a thing?!!

"What if I could completely undress in front of you? Do you think that I could be a Succubus? "--Erika Blanc

Now that the movie has gotten everyone’s attention, it’s time for the intro credits, which are an enchanting segment that consist of a nice, postcard-like visual of a castle, where the movie will no doubt take place. This moment is sweetened by the film’s musical theme of a wailing female voice set over an organ synth, fused with progressive rock, giving off a pleasurable gothic 70s vibe. This segment really resonates with me and exemplifies that sort of sensationalism that I love from these movies. I believe a good intro credit sequence should serve to really put you in the mood for what’s to come, and this one gloriously succeeds.

OH YEAH! This is what I signed up for.

Flash forward to the present day of 1971 where the Baron from the WWII intro scene, who happens to inhabit this lovely castle and appears to have not aged a day, is being interviewed by a journalist about his family history. He gives subtle hints to the unspeakable deed we witnessed earlier, when he mentions a curse that has plagued his family for generations.

Against the Baron’s wishes, this journalist later takes pictures of the castle’s exterior, and is then murdered by something off screen that seems severely pissed off about her snapping pictures. When the locals discover her body, it is suggested that she was frightened to death. They also happen to notice the sign of the devil on her arm. A connection to the curse the Baron speaks of? Most likely…

Next, the main characters of the story are finally introduced when the movie cuts to a busload of tourist. A colorful and amusing cast of 7 characters that have particular traits about them that just seems to be made quite obvious at the onset. Let’s see... There’s the bus driver, munching on a chicken leg, demonstrating a good deal of GLUTTONY, a priest with an adequate amount of PRIDE, an old man who lets his ANGER get the best of him, a red head with a sheer amount of ENVY for a married woman, a lady full of GREED, whose husband happens to have an insatiable amount of LUST for the red head, and a sleepy SLOTH of a blond. Hmmm, now what does that remind me of? That’s right! They all are guilty of the capital vices, the cardinal sins, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS! Now I see where this is going…

The bus runs into a road block, and the driver questions a delightfully creepy looking man (Daniel Emilfork), burning stuff on the side of the road, on where they can find a hotel. This man, who can best be described as the love child of Satan and Paul Reubens, gives them directions to the Baron’s Castle Von Rhoneberg. Go figure….

When they arrive to the castle they come across the Baron’s servant Hans, who is surprisingly hospitable to these out of town folks who have just barged into the castle. According to Hans, some lady had phoned previously alerting him that these guests would arrive, and to spice up the mystery, this unknown person on the phone has given Hans all of their names as well. Hmmmm….

After everyone is shown to their rooms, Hans visits the Baron working in his alchemy lab where he is mixing up colorful solutions of….whatever it is these castle hermits like to work on in their secret hidden laboratories. In any case, the Baron alerts Hans to have dinner ready at eight.

While in their rooms waiting for dinner, GLUTTONY helps himself to some sausages he keeps in his suitcase, while ENVY and SLOTH engage in a, very risqué for its time, lesbian love scene, and the married couple LUST and GREED, get into a good old fashion argument.

Later, when everyone sits down to a grand, elegant, and quite Gothic dinner setting, the Baron divulges on the family curse that everyone has heard so much about. It seems that one of the von Rhoneberg ancestors from the twelfth century made a deal with the Devil. The downside of this deal is that the eldest daughter of each generation must be in Satan’s service and become a Succubus, who is described here as a female demon that seduces men and leads them to damnation.

So, that’s why the Baron committed that horrible deed at the beginning of the movie. He didn’t want anyone to fall victim to his daughter, who would grow up to seduce countless men to perdition.

At this point, everyone is probably wondering when this Succubus is finally going to come and do all of these sinners in? Well, just as everyone finishes the dinner conversation, Erika Blanc’s character comes knocking at the door at just the right time and things really start to pick up. You see, the Baron’s brother had a daughter named Lisa, who is making a surprise visit. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for the guests, there happens to be one more room in the castle for this lovely newcomer to stay the night. It’s instantly made obvious that she is the Succubus when the red roses she goes near, wilt and turn into black roses… So awesome!

As is usual with Erika Blanc, her outfits change throughout the movie and her Succubus look is definitely the show stealer. She kills her victims while each is at the peak of their allocated mortal sin. Watching her stalk her prey is a delight, because she really gets into her role and it’s obvious she’s having a lot of fun. A subtle facial contortion, a black outfit, black nail polish, black lipstick, and white base, is all it takes for Blanc to transform into one of the coolest and most convincing Succubi ever. The Devil even shows up to add some weight to the film’s climax.

The hottest Blanc moments are when she repeatedly keeps trying to seduce the priest, to no avail. The best is when Blanc’s character, not in Succubus form, comes into Father Alvin’s room in a slightly revealing black bell bottomed outfit. She then disappears into thin air, and just as Alvin is wondering if what he saw was real or not, she reappears in a different spot with a piece of her outfit removed. She then disappears again, while Alvin, hardly surprised for some reason, sits on the bed as she reappears behind him with even less clothes on. At this point the hotness gauge is through the roof. Now, I would be absolutely terrified, but this man of the cloth maintains his composure as she reappears behind him once more, this time completely in the nude. Pure genius….

Erika Blanc? In my room?! Sweeeet!!!

I believe this Valentine’s day I will curl up in front of the fireplace with a bottle of red wine and enjoy the pleasant company of several of Erika Blanc’s movies. I’m thinking THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE, SO SWEET SO PERVERSE, A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE, and of course THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE, which I believe it to be a sensational film worth the time of any fan of vintage Gothic horror.

Fun Trivia: Blanc’s acting career spans several genres including giallo, erotic, western, comedy, and horror, to name a few. She was even the first actress to play EMMANUELLE in 1969. You know… those same EMMANUELLE movies that can still be found in the mature section of numerous video stores, to this day.

One thing I learned from this movie is that Succubi dig guys who are good at Chess.

An Angel for Satan (1966), Starring Barbara Steele

2011-01-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

Imagine being so taken by a lady's stunning beauty that you lose interest in everything else and become so detached from your regular life that you don’t even feel like yourself anymore. According to the film “AN ANGEL FOR SATAN”, finding yourself under the favorable attention of such a seductive presence could cause you to neglect things you used to hold dear, and ultimately suffer tragic consequences. In this movie, actress and legendary horror queen, Barbara Steele, plays a character that maliciously uses her otherworldly beauty and womanly charm to seduce and get into the heads of villagers, both men and women, causing them to commit regrettable and woeful deeds.

Set in the early 1900s in a superstitious backwater village, Camillo Mastrocinque’s AN ANGEL FOR SATAN is a compelling piece of gothic horror, where atmosphere and mystery rule the day. Similar to some of her other movies, Steele plays a good and an evil role, but this time as a single character with a duel personality. She spends the latter half of the film bouncing in and out of her evil side causing us to wonder if she is being possessed, or just plain out of her mind. The reason behind the terror is ultimately explained in a fairly satisfying climax that I will in no way try to ruin.

The story follows sculptor Roberto Merighi (Played by Anthony Steffen from THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE) travelling by boat to a small village, where he has been summoned to restore a statue discovered by a fisherman at the bottom of the lake. Roberto is a handsome gentlemanly type, who immediately attracts attention from some of the young female villagers when he arrives to the village’s shoreline. He is led through the village to a NIGHTMARE CASTLE, complete with a Count, servants, loads of elegant statues, and a pretty attractive maid named Rita. Victor, the gardener at the castle, is sort of like the village idiot, who has a few screws loose and has been put into an asylum several times, but is described as supposedly harmless.

The village itself is of the highly superstitious type, with a legend regarding the statue of the lake that Roberto was hired to restore; a legend based on a tragedy that occurred 200 years before. For it is believed by the locals that damnation will befall the village if that statue is resurrected, yet Roberto doesn’t believe one word of it, and the Count believes it will be good for attracting publicity.

The curse doesn’t take long to manifest itself, as both of the boatmen who accompanied Roberto to town end up drowning in the lake. A tragic consequence of the curse, or could something else be involved?

The drowning at the lake is seen as a bad omen by the villagers, and naturally they start to have a serious dislike for Roberto’s presence and his statue restoration assignment. While Roberto is taking a load off at the local pub, Carlos, the strongest man in the village, attacks him and a fight scene ensues, that feels like it could have been taken out of a western. After taking a beating and delivering one as well, Roberto stumbles out of the bar and comes across the village teacher, Dario, and learns that Carlos, the man who attacked him, is married with children, and is normally a very nice man. Dario happens to be meeting Rita, the attractive maid from the castle, and it is revealed that the two are romantically involved.

Finally at 15 minutes into the movie, we get to meet Barbara Steele’s character; the count’s niece Harriet who is returning from being schooled in London for 15 years since the age of 5, and by inheritance is the rightful owner of the castle. The statue Roberto is working on has an apparent likeness to Harriet, because the statue is of Harriet’s ancestor Madelina, and Harriet just so happens to have inherited her beauty and exact physical characteristics. Since Harriet has such a likeness to her ancestor, Roberto request that she pose for him, so he can have an easier time restoring the statue. The posing session causes the two to get to know each other better, and romance ensues.

Later, while staying at the Count’s CASTLE OF BLOOD, Roberto awakens during a stormy night, and is haunted by THE GHOST of Belinda, the cousin of Harriet’s ancestor Madelina. Belinda’s ghostly voice explains to Roberto the specifics of the legend and the statue, and swears to Roberto that the return of Madelinda’s beauty in the likeness of Harriet has upset her restless soul.

A lot of talk, a little bit of action, some romance, and a bunch of jibber jabber about a cursed statue….A lot will probably wonder when something is going to finally happen in this movie. Well get ready because it’s about to get insane!

With the origin of the curse explained, as well as the possible presence of Belinda’s vengeful ghost, the stage is now set for Barbara Steele’s character to undergo a demonic, deadly, and evil transition. As if being possessed by Belinda, Harriet turns into a scheming vixen who manipulates the minds of every vulnerable character. Any man’s weakness is a beautiful seductive woman, and the possessed Harriet takes full advantage of this fact. While brushing her LONG HAIR OF DEATH, Harriet is even able to seduce Rita, the maid, into completely shunning Dario, the school teacher, who she was madly in love with.

Harriet rides around on horseback, visiting and literally screwing with the heads of Dario, Carlos, and Victor. She sexually teases the once harmless Victor the village idiot, so much, that he ends up becoming a murdering rapist! Also, family guy Carlos is driven mad by her darkly flirtatious personality and is eventually driven to burn down his home while his family is still inside! Roberto plays the hero and risks his life to save one of Carlos’s daughters. After Roberto pulls the girl out of the fire, Carlos’s madness shifts to a deep regret when he catches sight of his own dying daughter, and in an emotional frenzy, rushes into the burning home, as it comes crumbling down on him. If that isn’t heavy enough, humiliated and broken from his love, Rita, choosing to be with Harriet, Carlos, the village teacher, hangs himself in his own classroom! The next day the kindergarten kids arrive to school to witness what must surely be traumatic sight!

During all of this craziness, Roberto does manage to restore the statue and also has his fair share of Harriet’s bizarre behavior. Harriet even runs to her Uncle the Count, and accuses Roberto of trying to rape her, while later she politely approaches him as if nothing ever happened. It eventually becomes up to Roberto to uncover the reason for Harriet’s strange and malicious behavior. What he is to uncover is something no one could’ve predicted! This is more or less because it is very unlikely, but was still enough to satisfy this viewer.

While Satan never makes an appearance, and I don’t recall any angels, AN ANGEL FOR SATAN still happens to be my favorite out of Barbara Steele’s movies, at least out of the ones I’ve seen. Any scene in which Steele is exhibited just demands the viewer’s attention. The ability to play a docile polite woman one moment, and an intimidating vicious SHE BEAST the next was what made her famous in Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY, and she takes that element to the next level in this one. A delicious and enjoyable sight she is, with that strangely beautiful face, those doughy (unblinking Innsmouth like) eyes, and gothic presence that was just made to climb out of a coffin, again and again, amongst TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE! Barbara Steele reigns supreme!!!